home / mytown-research

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

12 rows where vendor = "Flock Group" sorted by amount descending

✎ View and edit SQL

This data as json, CSV (advanced)

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

state 6

  • MI 7
  • IL 1
  • IN 1
  • OH 1
  • TX 1
  • VA 1

vendor 1

  • Flock Group · 12 ✖

ledger 1

  • flock 12
Link rowid vendor city state spend_date product amount ▲ quote source_document mytown_record ledger amount_type dup_rank geo_suspect anomaly state_norm
1951 1951 Flock Group Warren County VA 2023-08-15 approved the purchase 50150.0 the Board approved the purchase of the Flock Group for $50,150 on behalf of Warren County https://warrencountyva.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=5146,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/warrencountyva/2023/#m802824 flock stated 1 0 0 VA
2117 2117 Flock Group Westland MI 2024-07-09 approve payment of vouchers 36500.0 Flock Group $36,500.00 https://www.cityofwestland.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_07092024-825 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/cityofwestland.com/2024/#m1305082 flock stated 1 0 0 MI
2115 2115 Flock Group Westland MI 2024-06-27 approve payment of vouchers 35850.0 Flock Group $35,850.00 https://www.cityofwestland.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_06272024-817 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/cityofwestland.com/2024/#m1304859 flock stated 1 0 0 MI
2114 2114 Flock Group Westland MI 2026-01-13 approve payment of vouchers 22500.0 Flock Group $22,500.00 https://www.cityofwestland.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_01132026-1265 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/cityofwestland.com/#m1304556 flock stated 1 0 0 MI
1910 1910 Flock Group Fraser MI 2023-09-14 approve purchase 21000.0 Motion by Baranski supported by Blanke to approve the purchase of eight (8) Flock Cameras from Flock Group in an amount not to exceed $21,000 which will include pole installation with reimbursement for three (3) of the cameras from the Fraser Public Schools. https://frasermi.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3120,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/frasermi/2023/#m760061 flock ceiling 1 0 0 MI
1911 1911 Flock Group Fraser MI 2023-09-14 approve the purchase 21000.0 Motion by Baranski supported by Blanke to approve the purchase of eight (8) Flock Cameras from Flock Group in an amount not to exceed $21,000 which will include pole installation with reimbursement for three (3) of the cameras from the Fraser Public Schools. https://frasermi.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3359,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/frasermi/#m760063 flock ceiling 2 0 0 MI
1912 1912 Flock Group Fraser MI 2023-10-12 approve the purchase 21000.0 Motion by Baranski supported by Blanke to approve the purchase of eight (8) Flock Cameras from Flock Group in an amount not to exceed $21,000 which will include pole installation with reimbursement for three (3) of the cameras from the Fraser Public Schools. https://frasermi.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3145,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/frasermi/2023/#m760075 flock ceiling 3 0 0 MI
1913 1913 Flock Group Fraser MI 2023-10-12 approve the purchase 21000.0 Motion by Baranski supported by Blanke to approve the purchase of eight (8) Flock Cameras from Flock Group in an amount not to exceed $21,000 which will include pole installation with reimbursement for three (3) of the cameras from the Fraser Public Schools. https://frasermi.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3383,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/frasermi/2023/#m760076 flock ceiling 4 0 0 MI
1888 1888 Flock Group Athens County OH 2024-02-12 then and now certificate for payment 13100.0 Flock Group $13,100.00 Camera Contract/Install https://athensoh.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3227,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/athensoh/2024/#m747404 flock stated 1 1 0 OH
2223 2223 Flock Group Plainfield IN 2024-07-22 approve amendment 10000.0 Approval of a Traffic Analytics Package Order from Flock Group for $10,000 as an amendment to the Town’s existing Agreement, per Development Services Report. https://www.townofplainfield.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_07222024-602 https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/townofplainfield.com/2024/#m1458687 flock stated 1 0 0 IN
1819 1819 Flock Group Braidwood IL 2026-06-23 approve payment of bills 9000.0 Flock Group — $9,000 https://braidwoodil.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=1569,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/braidwoodil/#m625357 flock stated 1 0 0 IL
2005 2005 Flock Group Chambers County TX 2025-03-11 approve payment 9000.0 Approve payment to Flock Group for safety cameras at three Collection Stations in the amount of $9,000.00-Solid Waste. https://chamberscotx.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=5465,plainText=false) https://mytown.theboringparts.com/city/chamberscotx/2025/#m864657 flock stated 1 0 0 TX

Advanced export

JSON shape: default, array, newline-delimited

CSV options:

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);
Powered by Datasette · Queries took 5226.683ms · Data license: CC BY 4.0 · Data source: MyTown