> I kept returning in my mind to the question of the interface itself. To how the fictional, fantastical cop-movie interface somehow became a reality.
> This slip between fiction and reality seems to speak more broadly to the role of law enforcement itself, and to how self-mythologizing police narratives go on to shape the world.
Maybe "fiction" isn't the right word, but _every_ new product (or feature) is a "fantasy" before it gets actually built. If people first saw AR overlaying contextual info on top of video in film, I'm guessing that's because it took some further innovations to be able to do it in real time, and reliably, whereas doing it as an effect in post production can be slow and human-adjusted.
This isn't to say that cops _don't_ help perpetuate the perception that they're critical to society in exactly their current form, but this is weak evidence.
I think a more interesting perspective would be (a) how much is spent on police helicopters and (b) how often do they actually yield a result which wouldn't have been achieved otherwise? I wonder if a lot of it is just institutional bloat. "We hired the pilots, and we have the helicopters, and mechanics and fueling infra. If we don't fly them constantly, it will look like a waste, and the program might get a reduced budget next year."
> This slip between fiction and reality seems to speak more broadly to the role of law enforcement itself, and to how self-mythologizing police narratives go on to shape the world.
Maybe "fiction" isn't the right word, but _every_ new product (or feature) is a "fantasy" before it gets actually built. If people first saw AR overlaying contextual info on top of video in film, I'm guessing that's because it took some further innovations to be able to do it in real time, and reliably, whereas doing it as an effect in post production can be slow and human-adjusted.
This isn't to say that cops _don't_ help perpetuate the perception that they're critical to society in exactly their current form, but this is weak evidence.
I think a more interesting perspective would be (a) how much is spent on police helicopters and (b) how often do they actually yield a result which wouldn't have been achieved otherwise? I wonder if a lot of it is just institutional bloat. "We hired the pilots, and we have the helicopters, and mechanics and fueling infra. If we don't fly them constantly, it will look like a waste, and the program might get a reduced budget next year."