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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

7 rows where state = "TX" and vendor = "Verkada" sorted by amount descending

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

vendor 1

  • Verkada · 7 ✖

state 1

  • TX · 7 ✖

ledger 1

  • sv:camera:verkada 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
2402 2402 Verkada Sulphur Springs Independent School District TX 2025-01-13 security equipment (purchase) 1400000.0 Consider the purchase of school security equipment from Verkada to be expended from Safety and Facilities Enhancement Grant funds not to exceed $1,400,000.00 [Brad Moughon] https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Minutes/1046?meeting=670040 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/bb-1046/2025/#m15811632 sv:camera:verkada ceiling 1 1 0 TX
2403 2403 Verkada Sulphur Springs Independent School District TX 2026-01-12 security equipment licensing (purchase) 539224.0 Consider the purchase of ten-year licensing for school security equipment for ES #1 (Sulphur Springs Elementary School) and ES #2 (Rowena Johnson Elementary School) from Verkada and CNC Pro AV to be expended from 2024 Bond Funds in the amount of $539,224.00 [Dr. Deana Steeber] https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Minutes/1046?meeting=725365 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/bb-1046/#m15811609 sv:camera:verkada stated 1 1 0 TX
3816 3816 Verkada Amarillo TX 2026-07-14 security camera systems (purchase) 101367.0 Award to: Verkada and Lynk Automation (BuyBoard #739-24) Amount: $101,367.57 https://amarillotx.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=7614,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/amarillotx/#m159147 sv:camera:verkada stated 1 0 0 TX
2745 2745 Verkada Odessa TX 2024-04-09 cameras and access control (enter into contract) 78184.0 The Verkada contract was for ten years at a cost of $78,184.95. https://www.odessa-tx.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_04092024-675 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/odessa-tx.gov/2024/#m1278763 sv:camera:verkada stated 1 0 0 TX
4013 4013 Verkada Gillespie County TX 2026-02-17 security cameras (purchase) 32992.0 Verkada 3 year - $32,992.25 https://www.gillespiecounty.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02172026-102 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/gillespiecounty.gov/#m1389036 sv:camera:verkada stated 1 0 0 TX
4014 4014 Verkada Gillespie County TX 2026-03-17 security cameras (purchase) 32992.0 Verkada 3 year - $32,992.25 https://www.gillespiecounty.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03172026-106 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/gillespiecounty.gov/#m1389035 sv:camera:verkada stated 2 0 0 TX
2888 2888 Verkada Chambers County TX 2024-10-22 indoor dome cameras (approve payment) 6896.0 Approve payment in the amount of $6,896.86 to Davavox Inc. for Verkada CD52 and CD42 indoor dome cameras needed for live-streaming Central Counting Election Day for House Bill 246-County Clerk https://chamberscotx.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=5444,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/chamberscotx/2024/#m864646 sv:camera:verkada 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);
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