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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

9 rows where state = "IL" and vendor = "Flock" sorted by amount descending

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Suggested facets: city, product, amount, quote, dup_rank, spend_date (date)

vendor 1

  • Flock · 9 ✖

state 1

  • IL · 9 ✖

ledger 1

  • flock 9
Link rowid vendor city state spend_date product amount ▲ quote source_document mytown_record ledger amount_type dup_rank geo_suspect anomaly state_norm
1716 1716 Flock Palatine IL 2023-09-05 authorize contract 296625.0 Consider a Motion Authorizing the Village Manager to Enter into a Contract with Flock for the Installation of Ten License Plate Recognition Cameras and Five Situational Awareness Cameras in a Five -Year Contract Not -to-Exceed $296,625, as well as any Necessary ComEd Agreements - Approved by Voice Vote https://palatineil.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=382,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/palatineil/2023/#m461955 flock stated 1 0 0 IL
1999 1999 Flock Decatur IL 2021-11-08 budgeted 250000.0 Addition of more Flock cameras -0- $250,000 $250,000 $250,000 $250,000 $1,000,000 https://decaturil.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=1016,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/decaturil/#m863267 flock stated 1 0 0 IL
2000 2000 Flock Decatur IL 2021-11-17 budgeted 250000.0 Addition of more Flock cameras -0- $250,000 $250,000 $250,000 $250,000 $1,000,000 https://decaturil.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=994,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/decaturil/#m863269 flock stated 2 0 0 IL
2001 2001 Flock Decatur IL 2021-12-06 budgeted 250000.0 Addition of more Flock cameras -0- $250,000 $250,000 $250,000 $250,000 $1,000,000 https://decaturil.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=941,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/decaturil/#m863270 flock stated 3 0 0 IL
2078 2078 Flock Palos Heights IL 2025-12-01 budgeted 30000.0 Flock Traffic Safety Cameras. $30,000.00. https://www.palosheights.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_12012025-1285 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/palosheights.org/2025/#m1262091 flock stated 1 0 0 IL
1640 1640 Flock Joliet IL 2023-04-17 amendment to service agreement for additional license plate readers 23600.0 Amendment to the Service Agreement with Flock for additional license plate readers in the Amount of $23,600.00 https://joliet.legistar1.com/joliet/meetings/2023/4/1732_M_Pre-Council_Meeting_23-04-17_Meeting_Minutes.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/joliet/2023/#m296683 flock stated 1 0 0 IL
1641 1641 Flock Joliet IL 2023-04-18 amend 23600.0 Amendment to the Service Agreement with Flock for additional license plate readers in the Amount of $23,600.00 https://joliet.legistar1.com/joliet/meetings/2023/4/1711_M_City_Council_Meeting__23-04-18_Meeting_Minutes.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/joliet/2023/#m296685 flock stated 2 0 0 IL
2370 2370 Flock Itasca IL 2026-07-07 reported on a grant 12000.0 The Police Department reported on a $12,000.00 grant from the Illinois Attorney General's Violent Crime Victim Assistance Grant Program for using Flock cameras to solve crimes; https://www.itasca.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_07072026-1280 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/itasca.com/#m12082092 flock stated 1 0 0 IL
2089 2089 Flock Ottawa IL 2024-07-11 approved purchase 3500.0 Cameras at FLOCK $3,500 donation from Lions club. https://www.cityofottawa.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_07112024-156 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/cityofottawa.org/2024/#m1269996 flock stated 1 0 0 IL

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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);
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