Cell network tracking is not very accurate. They need to combine it with other information like Bluetooth or get information from wifi networks. Facial recognition kind of works. They exaggerate its accuracy. If you have a very good photo it works pretty well, but they usually don’t. A high quality street can might grab it if you wait straight at it.

I would suspect that they’re more likely operating mostly off of following people and taking down license plates, possibly adding in cop drones to follow people.

While the surveillance state exists, including tech, a lot of it is also propaganda. They like to project power and competency they don’t have and to justify their expensive contracts with tech providers, claim how it’s making their stats better. So one should mitigate with face coverings, turning their phone off, and limiting the discovery of one’s vehicle (especially that last one), yes. But they will mostly operate based on simple but reliable techniques. Of course, if you are a reliable local organizing force yourself, they will build a profile on you and you will be targeted using more than those techniques. But the title of this post is claiming that people are targeted for simply being at protests, which surely means mostly unorganized, unknown people to the cops.