I would disagree that surveillance is &quot;fairly useless&quot;.  Obviously, there are times when keeping a watch on potentially dangerous people is going to pay off.  How many times, I can&#x27;t say.<p>The problems begin when we have a process-bound bureaucracy rather than a group of smart people, each acting on hunches and excellent information.  Bureaucracies can be composed of smart people yet act stupidly.<p>Also, there are political mandates that certain minorities not be singled out, e.g. the Muslims.  Thus, the fact that the three involved in San Bernardino were Muslims did not come into play until well after the shooting.  The initial news articles I saw didn&#x27;t even mention their ethnicities and religious affiliations; even the conservative Wall Street Journal only mentioned it at the very end, and the fact that Marquez was a recent convert to Islam didn&#x27;t come out until recently.