United States, Virginia

Virginia State Police

Dataminr First Alert social media alerts, supplied by Dataminr

OperationalJournalismPAI-5056A9EE

Body
Virginia State Police
Country
United States
Area
Virginia
Technology
Dataminr First Alert social media alerts
Supplier
Dataminr
Status
Operational
In routine use by the named body, on the evidence of a public source.
Stage
In use now
Since
Not known
Legal basis
Not stated in the source
Oversight
Not stated in the source
Evidence
Journalism
Named reporting by a reputable outlet
Source
VPM, 5 June 2025
Last checked
Record code
PAI-5056A9EE

Notes

VPM reported on 5 June 2025 that the Virginia State Police has had multiple contracts with Dataminr, a social media monitoring company, the most recent reported being a $200,000 deal for licences to its First Alert service; neither the force nor Dataminr answered questions. Josh Stanfield reported in his newsletter Virginia Politics Revealed on 21 May 2025, from records the force released on 8 May 2025, that they included two 'First Alert Interval Digest' files dated 5 April 2025, one listing 8 alerts and one listing 86, and a 2020 master services agreement whose file names suggest a five-year term. A 30 April 2025 purchase order for 20 First Alert user licences at $120,000 for the following year is also described. A force spokesperson declined to tell VPM how the force uses AI, saying only that its High Tech Crimes Division does not use AI in investigations. Stanfield describes the records as scant and First Alert as a news aggregator delivered by email; the force told him no records exist of names or search terms given to Dataminr. Neither source shows who was monitored or what was done with the alerts. The status reflects use in 2025; no later source on the contract was found.

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