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

6 rows where ledger = "sv:rms:versaterm" and state = "TX" sorted by amount descending

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Suggested facets: city, amount_type, geo_suspect, spend_date (date)

vendor 1

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ledger 1

  • sv:rms:versaterm · 6 ✖
Link rowid vendor city state spend_date product amount ▲ quote source_document mytown_record ledger amount_type dup_rank geo_suspect anomaly state_norm
4001 4001 Versaterm San Benito TX 2025-05-20 body camera software (approve payment) 14300.0 Consideration and possible action to approve the annual payment to Versaterm Public Safety US Inc. for the San Benito Police Department's body camera software system in the total amount of $14,300.16. https://www.cityofsanbenito.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_05202025-1585 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/cityofsanbenito.com/2025/#m1449824 sv:rms:versaterm stated 1 0 0 TX
4000 4000 Versaterm San Benito TX 2025-03-18 dash camera software (approve payment) 13596.0 CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO APPROVE THE ANNUAL PAYMENT TO VERSATERM PUBLIC SAFETY US INC. FOR THE SAN BENITO POLICE DEPARTMENT’S DASH CAMERA SOFTWARE IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $13,596.00. https://www.cityofsanbenito.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03182025-1570 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/cityofsanbenito.com/2025/#m1449830 sv:rms:versaterm stated 1 0 0 TX
3999 3999 Versaterm San Benito TX 2024-03-19 body camera service (renew) 13440.0 approve the annual renewal payment to Versaterm Public Safety US, Inc., for the San Benito Police Department's body camera service in the total amount of $13,440.00. https://www.cityofsanbenito.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03192024-1486 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/cityofsanbenito.com/2024/#m1450062 sv:rms:versaterm stated 1 0 0 TX
4096 4096 Versaterm Taylor County TX 2024-03-14 IAPRO software (purchase) 9600.0 VERSATERM PUBLIC SAFETY US, INC. IAPRO FY24 9,600.00 https://taylortx.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=2618,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/taylortx/2024/#m783541 sv:rms:versaterm stated 1 1 0 TX
3931 3931 Versaterm Burnet County TX 2025-10-28 Dronesense CAD/RMS (renew contract) 8700.0 c. Approve and execute all appropriate actions to renew the Dronesense by Versaterm contract with the Burnet County Sheriff's Office in an amount not to exceed $8,700; https://public.destinyhosted.com/agenda_publish.cfm?id=28763&mt=ALL&get_month=10&get_year=2025&dsp=min&seq=4558 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/aq-28763/2025/#m6748028 sv:rms:versaterm ceiling 1 1 0 TX
4070 4070 Versaterm Chambers County TX 2025-01-14 yearly maintenance (approve payment) 5060.0 Approve payment to Versaterm Public Safety for 2025 yearly maintenance in the amount of $5,060.48-CCSO https://chamberscotx.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=5402,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/chamberscotx/2025/#m864653 sv:rms:versaterm stated 1 0 0 TX

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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);