It is the year 2026 and you are one of five Gotham City council members. Violent crime has been a serious problem in your city for decades with more than 650 homicides/year. The city is considering spending $45 million to implement a new Domain Awareness surveillance system to cover the three community areas with the highest homicide rate—all with over 125 homicides per 100,000 residents. 

The Domain Awareness surveillance system includes 1,000 state-of-the-art surveillance cameras equipped with gunshot detection devices that can detect where a gun was fired to within 50 feet, license plate readers, and advanced analytic software designed to recognize suspicious activity or crimes in process. The surveillance cameras are designed to hand off to each other so that a suspect’s trail can be followed from one camera to the next. 

Although Gotham City’s annual budget exceeds $3 billion, the city has been running a deficit of over $200 million/year and a financial crisis is looming over a shortfall of some $300 million in the city employee’s retirement fund. City council meets in two weeks to consider a proposal to implement the Domain Awareness system. What steps would you take to become more informed about the capabilities, strengths, and limitations of this system? 

What potential technical and non-technical issues are associated with this system? How might the citizens of Gotham City react to installation of such a system?