Only for the government. The workaround for mass warrantless surveillance is to contract a private company. Since you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy in public, it's not illegal to take a picture of your car as it drives by. You could do the same thing, just go outside your local police station and take pictures of the cars and write down the license plates and times they go by. Nobody will bother you because it's perfectly legal and the police obviously won't care that you're doing it because it's not illegal and they will thank you for making them feel safer.