A nonprofit newsroom. Reader supported since 2022.
Police and the private companies that sell them tools: cameras, phone extraction, social media monitoring, data brokers.
Records from a public safety agency show the social media monitoring tool tracking the accounts of people who organized demonstrations over a police shooting, alongside accounts flagged for violence. Tellwright says its customers define the categories.
Audit logs from three small towns show their license plate cameras answering lookups from agencies in 29 states, through sharing settings that council members say they never voted on.
Forensic checks of phones belonging to seven journalists found traces that matched components of Handset, the phone surveillance product Tellwright sells to governments. None of the reporters knew. Tellwright says it does not discuss its customers.