A lot of work went into the camera's panning system but the issues with it colliding with terrain seem like they could be avoided. By removing it's collision and instead giving it an area to mask out the alpha of the terrain meshes when it's near them creating a clear line of sight to the gang member it's following.
Although this solution wouldn't be as fancy and would potentially peer into the back faces of the meshes it would probably be forgiven for a smoother gameplay experience.