We file public records requests on police and government surveillance technology, then publish exactly what comes back. No spin. Just the paperwork.
Three kinds of content, kept visibly separate: records we obtained ourselves, original write-ups and monitoring digests, and links to other people's work worth knowing about.
A public records request goes out, cited to the exact statute, with a fee waiver on the record and a deadline the agency doesn't get to ignore.
If the agency stalls, we file again. And again. The clock doesn't stop because it's inconvenient for them.
What comes back goes up as-is — contracts, costs, camera counts, retention policies. Sourced, dated, unredacted where the law requires it.
Reports work differently — an original write-up when a city council takes up a surveillance contract, or when a vendor's own transparency portal quietly changes. Those get written, not filed, and carry a byline distinguishing them from the raw record. Read the Reports.
ALPR camera deployments, data retention windows, and search-log audits.
Fusus crime-center integration and facial recognition pilots on body cameras.
National Vehicle Location Service and the commercial Digital Recognition Network.
Facial recognition procurement and use by local law enforcement.
Data-sharing agreements and predictive-policing contracts.
Tell us what to file on next.
"Snoop unto them as they snoop unto us." — adapted from Hackers (1995)
In the fall of 1774, towns across the colonies elected local Committees of Observation — ordinary citizens tasked with one job: watch for violations of the boycott against British goods, and report them publicly. No badge. No warrant. Just the authority of paying attention and writing it down.
We won independence from one king two hundred and fifty years ago. The mechanisms of unaccountable power didn't go away — they just stopped wearing a crown. Cameras, license plate readers, and facial recognition, deployed by governments that are supposed to answer to the people under them. This is a Committee of Observation for that fight: filed requests, obtained records, published in full.
Tell us the agency, the vendor, or the contract. We'll take it from there.
Number published once provisioned. Disappearing messages on by default.
Handle published once provisioned.
PGP key published once generated. Plain email will not be treated as confidential.