Texas Surveillance Contract Watch

Automated public alerting for surveillance tech procurement by Texas governments.

Monitors procurement portals across Texas municipalities, counties, and state agencies for contracts involving ALPR systems, facial recognition, gunshot detection, drones, predictive policing platforms, and related surveillance technology. New findings are published via RSS feed, Discord webhook, and Bluesky.

Live dashboard: stickyhashtr33.github.io/tx-surveillance-watch

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What it monitors

Source	Portal	Coverage
USAspending.gov	Federal API	Federal awards to Texas recipients
City of San Antonio	Tabulations & Awards	Municipal contracts over $50K
Texas ESBD	txsmartbuy.gov/esbdawards	State agency awards
Bexar County	BidNetDirect	County solicitations
City of Austin	Open Data portal	Austin contracts dataset
Austin City Council	Legistar API	Agenda items 30 days out
USAspending (grants)	Federal API	DOJ/DHS grants to Texas agencies

Surveillance vendors and technologies tracked

• ALPR / License plate: Flock Safety, Genetec, Vigilant Solutions, Rekor, Motorola Solutions
• Gunshot detection: ShotSpotter, SoundThinking, Shooter Detection Systems
• Facial recognition: Clearview AI, Cognitec, NEC NeoFace, Corsight
• Video / CCTV: Verkada, Avigilon, Axis, Hanwha, Dahua, Hikvision
• Fusion platforms: Fusus, Palantir, Forensic Logic, Mark43
• Drones: Axon Air, Skydio, DJI, Percepto
• Body cameras: Axon Enterprise, Watchguard, Digital Ally
• Cell-site simulators: L3Harris, KeyW
• Social media monitoring: Babel Street, Dataminr, Voyager Labs
• Predictive policing, real-time crime centers, biometric systems

See keywords.py to add or remove terms.

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Quick start

git clone https://github.com/StickyHashTr33/tx-surveillance-watch
cd tx-surveillance-watch
pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m playwright install chromium   # for ESBD (JS-rendered site)

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Discord webhook, Bluesky credentials, etc.

python main.py                        # run all scrapers once
python main.py --stats                # show database stats
python main.py --loop                 # run every 12 hours
python main.py --source usaspending   # run a single scraper
python main.py --no-alerts            # scrape only, skip Discord/Bluesky

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Alert setup

RSS feed — point any RSS reader at https://stickyhashtr33.github.io/tx-surveillance-watch/feed.xml

Discord — Server → channel settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook → copy URL → add to .env as DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL

Bluesky — create account at bsky.app → Settings → App Passwords → Generate → add handle and password to .env

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Automated deployment

Runs free on GitHub Actions twice daily (6am and 6pm UTC):

1. Push this repo to GitHub
2. Add secrets under Settings → Secrets → Actions:
   • DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL
   • BLUESKY_HANDLE
   • BLUESKY_APP_PASSWORD
3. Enable GitHub Pages → Source: docs/ folder on main branch
4. Trigger the first run manually under Actions → Scrape & Alert → Run workflow

The action scrapes all sources, commits the updated feed.xml and watchdog.db back to the repo, fires Discord and Bluesky alerts for new findings, and Pages serves the dashboard automatically.

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Project structure

tx-surveillance-watch/
├── main.py                   # Entry point and orchestrator
├── config.py                 # All settings via environment variables
├── keywords.py               # Surveillance tech keyword watchlist
├── db.py                     # SQLite persistence and deduplication
│
├── scrapers/
│   ├── base.py               # BaseScraper — HTTP helpers, keyword scanning
│   ├── usaspending.py        # USAspending.gov REST API
│   ├── cosa.py               # City of San Antonio ASP.NET form scraper
│   ├── esbd.py               # Texas ESBD (Playwright + publicbidtracker fallback)
│   ├── bexar.py              # Bexar County via BidNetDirect
│   ├── austin.py             # City of Austin open data CSV
│   └── legistar.py           # Austin city council agendas via Legistar API
│
├── alerts/
│   ├── rss.py                # RSS 2.0 feed generator
│   ├── discord.py            # Discord webhook embeds
│   └── bluesky.py            # Bluesky AT Protocol poster
│
├── docs/
│   ├── index.html            # Public dashboard (GitHub Pages)
│   └── feed.xml              # Generated RSS feed
│
├── .github/workflows/
│   └── scrape.yml            # GitHub Actions scheduled job
│
├── .env.example              # Environment variable template
├── requirements.txt
└── watchdog.db               # SQLite database

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Adding more portals

1. Create scrapers/yourportal.py inheriting from BaseScraper
2. Implement scrape() -> list[dict] returning records with keys: source, title, description, vendor, amount, award_date, agency, url, matched_keywords, raw
3. Import in scrapers/__init__.py
4. Add to SCRAPERS dict in main.py
5. Add an ENABLE_YOURPORTAL flag in config.py

High-value next targets

• Houston — data.houstontx.gov checkbook dataset (CKAN API, vendor payment data from 2018)
• Dallas — dallasopendata.com vendor payments (Socrata)
• San Antonio city council agendas — SA moved off Legistar in 2021, current platform TBD
• Texas Ethics Commission — lobbyist registration filings for surveillance vendors
• FAA drone waivers — public CSV of drone authorization holders filtered by Texas public safety agencies

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Legal notes

All data collected by this tool is legally public under the Texas Public Information Act (Gov. Code Ch. 552), the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, and Texas Local Government Code §262. This tool performs read-only access to public-facing search interfaces. It does not access authenticated areas, bypass security controls, or collect personal information.

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Related projects

• DeFlock — crowdsourced Flock Safety camera map
• EFF Atlas of Surveillance — national police tech map
• ADS-B Exchange — the model: unfiltered public data, no blocklist
• OpenStreetMap surveillance tags