SD
GovWatch Docket
surveillance records
Updated daily from public records

Every camera contract, every council vote , traceable to source.

GovWatch Docket scans government meeting agendas, procurement portals, and vendor filings every day, then writes short sourced articles for anything touching cameras, license-plate readers, or facial recognition — with citations back to the original record.

Articles this month
States tracked
Sources indexed

Latest headlines

Vendor Intelligence

Every camera and ALPR vendor named in a public filing, aggregated across every jurisdiction GovWatch Docket tracks. Figures reflect only contracts with disclosed dollar amounts.

Know your rights

Resources for understanding surveillance technology, public records, and transparency tools.

1

Request public records

Use public records laws to request contracts, purchase orders, invoices, and policies.

Request:

"All contracts, invoices, purchase orders, and communications related to automated license plate readers and surveillance cameras."
2

Attend council meetings

Many surveillance purchases require public approval. Review agendas before votes happen.

3

Track vendors

Follow companies providing cameras, analytics software, and license plate reader systems.

4

Verify sources

Every claim should connect back to the original government record.

Organizations doing this work at scale

Electronic Frontier Foundation — Atlas of Surveillance
Community-sourced database of police surveillance technology
MuckRock
Public records request tracking and research
ACLU — State Affiliates
Tracks surveillance legislation by state
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Privacy policy research and litigation

About the data

GovWatch Docket is built to pull only from records that are already public: city council agendas, minutes, procurement portals, contract award notices, and court filings. Every article links back to the primary document it was created from.

How an article gets published

A scraper checks each jurisdiction's records platform on a schedule. Anything mentioning cameras, license plate readers, or facial recognition is pulled for processing.

A structured set of facts — vendor, dollar amount, vote tally, and dates — is extracted from the source. Before publishing, extracted facts are checked against the original document.

This prototype

The interface, database, and pipeline code are functional. The articles currently displayed are sample data until live jurisdictions are connected.