A power struggle between Washington, D.C., and the federal government highlights how cities can lose control of their own surveillance infrastructure. After the White House installed an “emergency police commissioner,” federal authorities gained access to D.C.’s new Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC), a hub connecting over 28,000 public and private cameras. This overrides local privacy laws, such as those preventing the surveillance of protests, and creates what critics call a “worst-case scenario” for civil liberties. Privacy advocates warn that data collected for municipal purposes could be repurposed by federal agencies for unrelated matters like immigration enforcement, setting a dangerous precedent for other major cities that have invested heavily in similar centralized surveillance systems.