Surveillance Watchdog
A civic-transparency app that ingests municipal and state procurement records, flags suspicious surveillance-tech purchases (cell-site simulators, ALPRs, biometrics), and sends residents a plain-language alert when their local police buy one.
U.S. residents and local journalists who care about civil liberties and police accountability
- Plain-English alerts when agencies near you buy gear matching a known surveillance catalog (FalcoNet, Stingray, ALPR, biometric)
- Side-by-side explainer of what the tech does, the relevant court rulings (e.g. Chatrie v United States), and what data it can capture
- Public-records request templates auto-filled with the right agency email and the legal basis for the request
- Tip-line inbox for journalists to request deeper investigations tied to your local agency
Texas just spent $4.5M on FalcoNet-equipped Tahoes with no public justification, and the legality of cell-site simulators is in flux after Chatrie — citizens have a concrete reason to act now.
Texas FalcoNet story confirmed across Yahoo/Carscoops/TechStory and Chatrie SCOTUS ruling (June 2026) is a real trigger, but audience is a small civil-liberties/journalist niche, not mass-market.Texas Police Spent $4.5 Million On 4 Chevy Tahoes Stuffed With Surveillance Gear ↗Victory! Supreme Court Says Constitution Protects People's Location Data ↗
No direct consumer-facing surveillance procurement-alert app found, but the territory is actively covered for free by EFF Atlas of Surveillance, MuckRock, ACLU, Brennan Center, and EFF's 2025 Flock investigations.EFF's Investigations Expose Flock Safety's Surveillance Abuses: 2025 in Review ↗Your Weather App Is a Government Spy - State of Surveillance ↗
No evidence of willingness to pay—target users (ACLU/EFF/journalists) get this info free from nonprofits and FOIA reporting; FOIA-processor and civic-transparency apps have historically struggled with paid conversion.How Texas Police Spent $4.5 Million on Four Chevy Tahoes ↗
Surveillance-tech procurement (ALPRs, cell-site simulators, biometrics) is entrenched and expanding per ACLU/EFF; Chatrie and ongoing Flock litigation ensure recurring legal hooks for years.Flock's Aggressive Expansions Go Far Beyond Simple Driver Surveillance ↗
Procurement data is scattered across municipal/state portals in inconsistent formats; building ingest + a suspicious-purchase taxonomy is doable but requires scraping/FOIA infrastructure and careful NLP—not trivial but feasible for a small team MVP.Texas State Police Spending $4.5M On Four Chevy Tahoe SUVs ↗