Send us a tip
Residents, agency staff, and local reporters know things the public record does not show on its own. If you know something about surveillance technology in your county, we would like to hear it.
What is useful
- Contracts, purchase orders, invoices, and grant applications for surveillance equipment.
- Staff memos, training material, or vendor pitches about how a system is meant to be used.
- Retention schedules, data-sharing agreements, and privacy policies, including drafts.
- Agenda packets and minutes, especially where an item was added late or handled in closed session.
- Photographs of devices in public places, with the cross street if you have it.
- A pointer. Telling us where to look is useful even when you cannot send anything.
You do not need to know whether something is significant. Part of our job is working out what a document means, and a record that turns out to be routine is still worth the look.
What we promise
We will not publish your name or any detail that would identify you, and we will not disclose who you are voluntarily. If we quote what you send, we will do it in a way that does not point back to your access. In a small county, describing someone's job can identify them as surely as naming them.
We do not keep a list of who sends us things. If you ask us to delete your message, we will.
What happens next
We confirm what you send against the public record before we publish anything. A tip on its own is a lead, not a finding, and it is labelled that way in our own notes until a document or an agency confirms it. This is the same standard everything else on this site has to meet.