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Read David Brin's The Transparent Society. He talks at length about the ramifications of having everywhere monitored by video cameras... and why it's not necessarily a bad thing. The cameras are only monitoring the outdoors/businesses/government offices... and if you're committing a crime there, you deserve to be caught and punished.
Most importantly, he talks about the "observation factor". This is essentially what makes Joe Schmoe safe from people watching his every move... they simply don't care about him. THe more important a person is, the more carefully they are watched and the less likely it is that they will get away with any illegal activity.
However! He does point out that if the cameras are controlled only by the government, we're screwed. Everyone needs to have equal access to everything to make sure information isn't being hoarded or destroyed.
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