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

6 rows where state = "VA" and vendor = "Flock Safety" sorted by amount descending

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

vendor 1

  • Flock Safety · 6 ✖

state 1

ledger 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
1573 1573 Flock Safety Smithfield VA 2026-08-04 authorize payment of invoice 33000.0 Flock Safety $ 33,000.00 https://smithfieldtwpva.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3457,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/smithfieldtwpva/#m171666 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
2327 2327 Flock Safety Pearisburg VA 2023-10-17 approve the purchase 12500.0 The Committee made a recommendation that the Council approve the purchase of two Flock Cameras utilizing the HEAT initiative funds at a cost not to exceed $12,500. https://www.pearisburg.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_10172023-9 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/pearisburg.org/#m1591819 flock ceiling 1 0 0 VA
2239 2239 Flock Safety Radford VA 2023-10-09 approve appropriation 12000.0 The $12,000 grant will be used for maintenance support of the 5 flock cameras installed throughout the City. https://www.radfordva.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_10092023-619 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/radfordva.gov/#m1477206 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
1572 1572 Flock Safety Bedford VA 2026-06-16 approve budget amendment for HEAT Grant award to purchase flock equipment/service 10000.0 The grant covers the purchase of flock equipment/service for an amount not to exceed $10,000. https://www.bedfordva.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06162026-510 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/bedfordva.gov/#m170857 flock ceiling 1 0 0 VA
2237 2237 Flock Safety Radford VA 2025-08-11 approve appropriation 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/_08112025-751 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/radfordva.gov/2025/#m1476988 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
2301 2301 Flock Safety Colonial Beach VA 2026-03-10 budget 10000.0 Level Funding Contract with Flock Safety 10,000.00 https://www.colonialbeachva.net/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03102026-228 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/colonialbeachva.net/#m1555398 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);