Watching the watch.
Overview
Government watches the public in more ways every year — fixed cameras, automated license-plate readers, face recognition, drones, real-time crime centers, and acoustic sensors. The rules that govern those systems, and the public's ability to see them, vary enormously from one jurisdiction to the next.
watchwatch is a public record of what government operates and how it is overseen. It documents the technology a jurisdiction uses and, alongside it, the oversight structures that apply: whether a use policy is published, whether the public can access the footage, whether data-sharing is disclosed, and what law governs it. It reports these facts; it does not argue a position. The project is United States–first.
What It Documents
- Fixed cameras & real-time crime centers — municipal CCTV networks and the fusion platforms that aggregate them.
- Automated license-plate readers (ALPR) — the cameras, the networks they join, and who can query them.
- Face recognition — where it is deployed and against which databases.
- Drones & aerial surveillance — agency UAS programs and their authorized uses.
- Acoustic & other sensors — gunshot detection and related monitoring.
- Government-held footage — body-worn camera, dashcam, and facility video, and the rules for releasing it.
The Five Tracks
The same dataset, viewed five ways:
The Oversight Score
Each jurisdiction is scored on which oversight structures exist — not on the technology itself. The score records four factual questions. Where a jurisdiction does not respond, the item is recorded as “not disclosed,” never left blank.
→ published_policy yes
→ public_access partial
→ disclosed_sharing yes
→ legislative_limits yes
→ score 82 / 100
Built on Public Records
Every data point traces to a public-records request. Coverage, recipients, and deadlines are driven by UnGovr's per-jurisdiction records-law analysis — each request is scoped to what the statute allows, and stays within the law in every case. The underlying analysis is published at law.ungovr.org/records/us
Part of UnGovr Oversight
watchwatch is one member of UnGovr Oversight, a family of observatories that turn opaque corners of government into public datasets with a consistent oversight score. It lives at watchwatch.org, under the tagline “Watching the watch.”
- Civil Grand Jury — California's civil grand jury reports
- CA Oversight — California local-government oversight
- Sheriff Oversight — sheriff civilian oversight bodies
- watchwatch — government surveillance technology (this project)
- Datacenter Oversight — government and public-money data centers (concept)
- AI Oversight — government use of AI (concept)
Get Involved
We're looking for journalists, oversight bodies, and researchers to help shape what the observatory tracks first. Your experience with surveillance records — in any jurisdiction — will inform what we build.