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

4 rows where state = "TX" and vendor = "ShotSpotter" sorted by amount descending

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

vendor 1

  • ShotSpotter · 4 ✖

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
3173 3173 ShotSpotter Houston TX 2021-12-14 gunshot detection subscription (award contract) 3500000.0 ORDINANCE approving and awarding contract between City of Houston and SHOTSPOTTER, INC for Gunshot Detection Solutions Services; providing a maximum contract amount - 5 Years - $3,500,000.00 - General Fund https://houstontx.primegov.com/Public/CompiledDocument/2615 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/houstontx/2021/#m681840 sv:gunshot:shotspotter ceiling 1 0 0 TX
3172 3172 ShotSpotter Houston TX 2023-01-31 gunshot detection subscription (amend) 2800000.0 ORDINANCE amending Ordinance No. 2022-0020 (Passed on January 5, 2022) to increase the maximum contract amount for contract between City of Houston and SHOTSPOTTER, INC for Gunshot Detection Solution Services for the Houston Police Department - $2,800,000.00 - General Fund https://houstontx.primegov.com/Public/CompiledDocument/2224 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/houstontx/2023/#m681898 sv:gunshot:shotspotter ceiling 1 0 0 TX
2436 2436 ShotSpotter DeSoto TX 2026-02-03 gunfire detection system (approve resolution for submission of grant application) 99000.0 Consider approval of a Resolution for submission of a grant application on behalf of the DeSoto Police Department from the Office of the Governor to fund the City's use of the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system in the amount of $99,000 https://public.destinyhosted.com/agenda_publish.cfm?id=33768&mt=ALL&get_month=2&get_year=2026&dsp=min&seq=3915 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/aq-33768/#m6754402 sv:gunshot:shotspotter stated 1 1 0 TX
2435 2435 ShotSpotter DeSoto TX 2026-04-21 gunshot detection subscription (amend) 44482.0 Consider authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute an amendment to the Agreement with SoundThinking, Inc. (ShotSpotter) to extend the term of the agreement for subscription services to a prorated term from April 20, 2026 through September 30, 2026, in the amount of $44,482 https://public.destinyhosted.com/agenda_publish.cfm?id=33768&mt=ALL&get_month=4&get_year=2026&dsp=ag&seq=3924 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/aq-33768/#m6754407 sv:gunshot:shotspotter stated 1 1 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);