surveillance_spending

A DISCOVERY INDEX of surveillance and police-technology dollar figures found in local government meeting records across 130+ named vendors — NOT a table of confirmed spending, and NOT safe to SUM. An audit on 2026-07-29 found aggregate views were adding amounts that must not be added: the same procurement recurs at committee, council, approval, amendment and renewal stages; "not to exceed" figures are authorization ceilings, not payments. Use the canned query "the CONSERVATIVE total" for any number you intend to publish, and "data-quality report" to see what is flagged. Columns added for this: `amount_type` (stated / ceiling / proposed / recommended / estimated), `dup_rank` (>1 = redundant copy), `geo_suspect` (city disagrees with the source link), `anomaly` (implausible figure), `state_norm` (normalized state). Vendors covered include ALPR (Flock, Vigilant, Genetec), body cameras/tasers (Axon, WatchGuard, Utility, Getac), gunshot detection (ShotSpotter/SoundThinking), face recognition (Clearview AI, DataWorks Plus), fingerprint biometrics (Idemia AFIS/Livescan, filed separately under `sv:biometrics`), data fusion and OSINT (Fusus, Peregrine, LexisNexis Accurint, Thomson Reuters CLEAR), phone forensics (Cellebrite, GrayKey, Magnet), drones (Skydio, BRINC, DJI), cameras/VMS (Verkada, Avigilon), cell-site simulators, CAD/RMS records systems, photo enforcement, jail-call and student monitoring. Every row carries a VERBATIM quote from the minutes and a link to the source document, and a row only publishes if that quote was found character-for-character in the source text. READ THE `ledger` COLUMN: `sv:<category>:<vendor>`. `radio_infra` (two-way radios), `rms` (records/CAD software), `biometrics` (fingerprints) and `not_surveillance` are NOT surveillance sensors — exclude them before quoting any surveillance figure.

Data license: CC BY 4.0 · Data source: MyTown

7 rows where ledger = "sv:forensics:cellebrite" and state = "MS" sorted by amount descending

✎ View and edit SQL

This data as json, CSV (advanced)

Suggested facets: city, amount, spend_date (date)

vendor 1

state 1

ledger 1

  • sv:forensics:cellebrite · 7 ✖
Link rowid vendor city state spend_date product amount ▲ quote source_document mytown_record ledger amount_type dup_rank geo_suspect anomaly state_norm
3608 3608 Cellebrite Pearl MS 2025-09-02 Digital Forensics (renew) 10295.0 Order to approve and authorize the 12-month renewal of Cellebrite Digital Forensics from Cellebrite Inc. in the amount of $10,295.00 https://pearlms.legistar1.com/pearlms/meetings/2025/9/1061_M_Mayor_and_Board_of_Aldermen_25-09-02_Meeting_Minutes.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/pearlms/#m331843 sv:forensics:cellebrite stated 1 0 0 MS
2972 2972 Cellebrite Hancock County MS 2024-10-07 License Subscription (renew) 9700.0 Motion to approve and authorize the Board President to sign the renewal of a License Subscription in the amount of $9,700.00 from Cellebrite for the Sheriff's Department and spread the quote on the Minutes. https://hancockcoms.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=2184,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/hancockcoms/2024/#m792400 sv:forensics:cellebrite stated 1 0 0 MS
2971 2971 Cellebrite Hancock County MS 2025-10-20 license subscription renewal (renew) 8820.0 Motion to approve and authorize the Board President's signature for license subscription renewal in the amount of $8,820.00 from Cellebrite Inc., for the Sheriff's Department. https://hancockcoms.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=2734,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/hancockcoms/2025/#m792484 sv:forensics:cellebrite stated 1 0 0 MS
3610 3610 Cellebrite Pearl MS 2024-08-06 Digital Forensics subscription (renew) 6900.0 Request to renew yearly subscription (Sept 6, 2024 - Sept 5, 2025) Cellebrite Digital Forensics from Cellebrite Inc. in the amount of $6,900.00 and authorize Chief McLendon to sign agreement https://pearlms.legistar1.com/pearlms/meetings/2024/8/1031_M_Mayor_and_Board_of_Aldermen_24-08-06_Meeting_Minutes.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/pearlms/2024/#m331814 sv:forensics:cellebrite stated 1 0 0 MS
2973 2973 Cellebrite Hancock County MS 2023-11-06 mobile forensics subscription (purchase) 6450.0 Motion to approve the sole source subscription purchase from Cellebrite for the Sheriff's Department in the amount of $6,450.00 and spread the letter on the Minutes. https://hancockcoms.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=1860,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/hancockcoms/2023/#m792329 sv:forensics:cellebrite stated 1 0 0 MS
3613 3613 Cellebrite Pearl MS 2023-07-18 UFED Physical Analyzer (renew) 6450.0 Yearly renewal Cellebrite UFED Physical Extraction 2,700.00 Physical Analyzer 3,750.00 Total 6,450.00 https://pearlms.legistar1.com/pearlms/meetings/2023/7/988_M_Mayor_and_Board_of_Aldermen_23-07-18_Meeting_Minutes.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/pearlms/2023/#m331787 sv:forensics:cellebrite stated 1 0 0 MS
3428 3428 Cellebrite Columbus MS 2021-08-03 Mobile Forensics training course software (approve request to purchase) 2295.0 Approve request to purchase Cellebrite Mobile Forensics training course software in the amount of $2,295.00. https://columbusms.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=1595,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/columbusms/2021/#m527025 sv:forensics:cellebrite stated 1 0 0 MS

Advanced export

JSON shape: default, array, newline-delimited

CSV options: 

CREATE TABLE surveillance_spending (
  vendor TEXT, city TEXT, state TEXT, spend_date TEXT, product TEXT,
  amount REAL, quote TEXT, source_document TEXT, mytown_record TEXT, ledger TEXT, amount_type TEXT, dup_rank INTEGER, geo_suspect INTEGER, anomaly INTEGER, state_norm TEXT);
CREATE INDEX ix_surv_vendor ON surveillance_spending(vendor);
CREATE INDEX ix_surv_state ON surveillance_spending(state);
CREATE INDEX ix_surv_amount ON surveillance_spending(amount);
CREATE INDEX ix_surv_ledger ON surveillance_spending(ledger);