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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 = "VA" and vendor = "Flock" sorted by amount descending

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vendor 1

  • Flock · 7 ✖

state 1

  • VA · 7 ✖

ledger 1

  • flock 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
1957 1957 Flock Martinsville city VA 2024-02-27 awarded grant funds for equipment 371850.0 Flock ALPR Camera System $371,850 https://martinsvilleva.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=944,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/martinsvilleva/2024/#m815087 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
2238 2238 Flock Radford VA 2024-08-12 appropriation 12500.0 The $12,500 support will provide maintenance subscription for the City ’s four Flock cameras used to read the license plates of stolen vehicles. https://www.radfordva.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_08122024-679 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/radfordva.gov/2024/#m1477098 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
1583 1583 Flock Madison VA 2026-07-14 budget 10000.0 1110-0000-00-00000-433314-0000-000000-00000-0000-G0042 FLOCK HEAT GRANT 0.00 0.00 -10,000.00 -10,000.00 0.00 10,000.00 100.0% https://www.madisonco.virginia.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_07142026-453 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/madisonco.virginia.gov/#m205733 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
1938 1938 Flock Appomattox County VA 2025-10-20 supplement and appropriate grant funds 10000.0 Grant funds received from the Virginia Department of State Police for HEAT-Flock cameras ($10,000.00); https://appomattoxcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=571,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/appomattoxcova/2025/#m794940 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
2236 2236 Flock Radford VA 2025-09-08 approved appropriation ordinance for grant 10000.0 The $10,000 support will provide maintenance subscription for the City’s four Flock cameras used to read the license plates of stolen vehicles. https://www.radfordva.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09082025-756 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/radfordva.gov/2025/#m1476986 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
2363 2363 Flock Buckingham County VA 2026-06-08 approve transfer of grant funds 10000.0 The Sheriff’s Office was able to receive $10,000 to aid in the purchase of five Flock cameras that are set up strategically across the county. https://www.buckinghamcountyva.org/June%208,%202026%20BOS.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/rz-buckinghamcountyva.org/#m7715789 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
1977 1977 Flock Altavista VA 2026-05-26 budget amendment to appropriate seized funds for purchase 3800.0 This amendment includes $24,050 in seized assets remitted to DCJS, $3,800 in seized funds used for the purchase of a Flock camera at Dalton’s Landing as approved by Council on February 10, 2026, and $1,200 in state forfeiture funds used for the purchase of a desktop computer as approved by Council on January 13, 2026. https://altavistava.gov/Altavista%20Town%20Council%20Work%20Session%20Minutes%2026MAY26%20-%20FINAL.pdf https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/rz-altavistava.gov/#m840642 flock stated 1 0 0 VA

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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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