They installed cameras at my restaurant. They told everyone it was because we were having problems with homeless people sleeping on the patio at night. Also, some of our patio chairs and tables have disappeared. However, none of the cameras are installed overlooking seating areas. There are about 12 cameras and they're exclusively aimed at employee activities in places customers aren't allowed.
We found this out because a customer grabbed one of the servers (sexual assault). They did kick the guy out. But, of course, we also went to the manager on duty to see if it was on camera in order to have a picture of his identity to ban/prosecute. Nope. The cameras facing the public areas are fake! The cameras that watch employees are real.
They don't care what customers do, or if the public steals from us or hurts us. They're to see if we're sitting down, eating food, slouching, or on our phones. If so, we get a phone call from the owner (who is at home, 30 miles away) telling us to stand up, get off our phone, or stop eating.
This is all probably perfectly legal; I'm just here to rant because this experience is more and more common as surveillance gets cheaper and easier to access through apps and whatnot. It sucks to know you're not trusted and deserve to be treated like children, simply because you're an unlucky peasant in a uniform.