I really don’t like the “but otherwise we’d need a warrant” approach.

Yes, of course you should need a warrant. That’s the bit that’s the safeguard and actually is the checks and balance against abuse. It’s not a problem to be optimized away.

Wouldn't trust any officials in Clearwater with anything, because the town is run by Scientologists. It's like their hub city.

Many corporations who are run by that cult have their HQs in Clearwater. Many of them are clustered around the Clearwater city hall, along with a major Scientology center.

With all that context, it really makes the surveillance camera monitoring more creepy.

All cameras and data collection CAN be abused. Is there any evidence that this HAS been abused?