One of those personal transformations of thought that it seems we can't un-think once we've had it, is when someone realizes that one of the traditionally sanctioned major purposes of the police is to make sure everybody in town always knows who holds the legal monopoly on violence.
Sort of orthogonal to the main point, but we are at least a decade past the point where “police helicopter” should have ceased to exist as a concept. The only thing is Sikorsky can do that a camera drone can’t is intentionally terrorize an entire neighborhood for being too friendly to protestors.
