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

5 rows where state = "MN" and vendor = "WatchGuard Video" sorted by amount descending

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

vendor 1

  • WatchGuard Video · 5 ✖

state 1

Link rowid vendor city state spend_date product amount ▲ quote source_document mytown_record ledger amount_type dup_rank geo_suspect anomaly state_norm
2901 2901 WatchGuard Video Park Rapids MN 2020-09-08 body worn cameras (purchase) 33610.0 Approval of the Purchase of Body Worn Cameras for the Park Rapids Police Department from Watchguard in the Amount of $33,610.00 https://ci.park-rapids.mn.us/Documents/How%20Do%20I/Documents%20And%20Forms/Council%20Meeting%20And%20Agendas/2020/Packets/09-08-20%20CC%20Packet%20regular.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/rz-ci.park-rapids.mn.us/2020/#m846253 sv:bodycam:watchguard stated 1 0 0 MN
2902 2902 WatchGuard Video Park Rapids MN 2020-09-08 body worn cameras (purchase) 33610.0 Approval of the Purchase of Body Worn Cameras for the Park Rapids Police Department from Watchguard in the Amount of $33,610.00 https://ci.park-rapids.mn.us/Documents/How%20Do%20I/Documents%20And%20Forms/Council%20Meeting%20And%20Agendas/2020/Agendas/09-08-20%20regular%20agenda.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/rz-ci.park-rapids.mn.us/2020/#m846186 sv:bodycam:watchguard stated 2 0 0 MN
2485 2485 WatchGuard Video Cold Spring MN 2022-02-22 body-worn cameras (approve purchase) 8096.0 TO APPROVE THE PURCHASE OF BODY WORN CAMERAS AND ACCESSORY EQUIPMENT FROM WATCHGUARD VIDEO/MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS AT A COST OF $8,096.40 ANNUALLY FOR FIVE YEARS, AND FURTHERMORE, TO BE PAID FOR OUT OF CAPITAL EXPENDITURES OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT BUDGET LINE ITEM #6413. https://coldspringmn.gov/vertical/sites/%7B01184721-7780-4C87-A564-E6EF5442EC4F%7D/uploads/2-22-22.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/coldspring/2022/#m1617928 sv:bodycam:watchguard stated 1 0 0 MN
2483 2483 WatchGuard Video Cold Spring MN 2018-09-11 dash camera and radar (purchase) 7949.0 MOTION WAS MADE BY SCHMITZ, SECONDED BY MILLER, TO APPROVE THE PURCHASE OF A WATCHGUARD 4RE DASHBOARD CAMERA AND STALKER DSR RADAR WITH MOUNTING BRACKETS FOR THE COST OF $7,949.00 AND FURTHERMORE TO BE PAID OUT OF LINE ITEM #6311. https://coldspringmn.gov/vertical/sites/%7B01184721-7780-4C87-A564-E6EF5442EC4F%7D/uploads/9-11-18.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/coldspring/#m1618086 sv:bodycam:watchguard stated 1 0 0 MN
2484 2484 WatchGuard Video Cold Spring MN 2021-01-12 video software/storage (approve purchase) 5525.0 TO APPROVE THE PURCHASE OF SOFTWARE AND CLOUD STORAGE FOR THE WATCHGUARD SYSTEM AT A COST OF $5,525.00 https://coldspringmn.gov/vertical/sites/%7B01184721-7780-4C87-A564-E6EF5442EC4F%7D/uploads/1-12-21(1).pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/coldspring/2021/#m1617955 sv:bodycam:watchguard stated 1 0 0 MN

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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);