I think you're missing the point of the parent comment. They aren't suggesting more surveillance, they're pointing out that right now the status quo is that even when there's already surveillance footage that could be used to identify a suspect, all too often the police can't be bothered to do any "good old fashioned police work".

We don't need draconian surveillance measures enacted to solve this type of crime. We need police resources to actually follow up and prosecute petty theft for all victims, not just corporations and celebrities. A couple of years ago my father was involved in a hit and run when a man in a red late model corvette turned out of a small subdivision right in front of traffic. This was during morning rush hour on a weekday, there's only about a dozen houses on that road, and only one red late model corvette parked in the driveway of one of those houses. That single red corvette was also parked with a car cover on it afterwards. Even though there were numerous witnesses to the hit and run given that it was during morning rush hour traffic, and even though it is pretty obvious what happened and there are plenty of ways to get evidence to support it, the police couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. As far as I know, they didn't even so much as question him about the hit and run.

We're currently paying the privacy tax with existing surveillance yet people like you and me cannot benefit from that surveillance.