Mass surveillance tech deployed locally with no public visibility

Pain point

Residents don't know where ALPR/Flock cameras are, who funds them, who queries them, or which vendors beyond Flock (e.g. Toka Group) operate quietly. "Shouldn't be living on public funds."

Signal

Very strong — 48K upvotes; top comments explicitly ask about *other, less visible* vendors (152) and public-funding accountability (67). Recurs thematically with data-mishandling anger in post 4.

Opportunity

Civic-tech SaaS sold to local news orgs, advocacy groups, and city councils: auto-files/parses public records and procurement data, maps surveillance contracts by municipality, and alerts residents when their town votes on a contract. Revenue: nonprofit/newsroom licenses + grants. Feasibility: medium — FOIA automation and procurement scraping are the hard parts; an MVP alert-by-zip-code list is quick.

Evidence

• Flock backlash