VSP: "Over $1,000,000" for Dataminr Surveillance Records
In the last 15 months, the Virginia State Police have received “approximately 925,082 emails” from Dataminr.
Last month, I read Sam Biddle’s article “LAPD Surveilled Gaza Protests Using This Social Media Tool” in The Intercept and, after learning about the use of Dataminr to surveil peaceful protests, wondered if it’s used by the government in Virginia. After all, as I reported in 2023, local law enforcement, the Virginia State Police (VSP), and even the FBI have a recent history of surveilling peaceful protests in Virginia:
Biddle’s reporting in The Intercept focuses on Dataminr’s use in LA:
The alerts began pouring in on October 9, when Dataminr flagged a “Protest mentioning Israel” blocking traffic in Beverly Hills, citing a tweet. Over the course of the month, Dataminr tipped off the LAPD to six different protests against the war across Los Angeles. These alerts included information about protests already in progress and information about the time and place of at least one LA protest planned for a future date.
Emails produced by the LAPD in response to The Intercept’s records request show that along with its regular feed of information about constitutionally protected speech, it also provides the department with alerts curated through feeds with titles like “Domestic Demonstrations Awareness,” “LA demonstrations,” “LA unrest,” and “demonstrations,” indicating the department proactively monitors First Amendment gatherings using the platform.
The department also began receiving a regular flow of alerts about protests thousands of miles away, including a “protest mentioning Palestinian territories outside the Consulate General of Israel” in Chicago,” and tweets from journalist Talia Jane, who was providing real-time updates on an antiwar rally in New York City.
As Biddle notes, the technology isn’t new - and neither is its use to surveil peaceful protests:
Previous reporting by The Intercept has shown Dataminr has used this privileged access to surveil abortion rights rallies, Black Lives Matter protests, and other constitutionally protected speech on behalf of both local and federal police. Dataminr sources told The Intercept in 2020 how the company’s human analysts, helping tailor the service to its various police and military customers, at time demonstrated implicit biases in their work — an allegation the company denied.
Dataminr Purchase Orders: VSP, JMU, VDEM
A public search of Virginia’s eProcurement Marketplace for Dataminr vendor information and purchase orders reveals that the Virginia State Police, James Madison University (JMU), and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) have relationships with the company.
The vendor information for Dataminr Inc. reveals that in the past fiscal year (2024), $232,600 flowed their way, and $120,000 moved this fiscal year (2025) so far.
VDEM’s August 22, 2023 purchase order was for 53 individual licenses at a cost of $222,600.00. JMU’s April 4, 2024 purchase order was for a single Dataminr license at the cost of $10,000.
The April 10, 2023 VSP purchase order includes some revealing details. The reference and description reads in part:
Renewal of Dataminr Accounts for an additional 12 months (April 2023 through April 2024) for the Virginia Fusion Center. Dataminr is a open source social media alerting service that has a proprietary algorithm and is the only company with direct access to Twitter feeds. Alerts allow Fusion Center staff to provide real-time intelligence support to VSP and other public safety agencies in the Commonwealth. Seven (7) licenses for an additional 12 months at a cost of $70,000. with 23 additional trial licenses for a year.
And VSP’s July 2, 2024 purchase order notes that for 20 individual user licenses, the cost was $120,000.
The FOIA Request
With Sam Biddle’s reporting in mind, I submitted a FOIA request to the Virginia State Police on March 27, 2025. I requested “any communications with employees or representatives of the company Dataminr” and “any invoices or records of payment to Dataminr” from January 1, 2024 until the day of my request.
VSP’s Response
First, the Virginia State Police exerted their right under Va. Code § 2.2-3704(B)(4) for seven additional work days to process the request. Then, this morning, I received their response:
Good morning. We are working to process your request. We currently have gathered documentation from our Property and Finance division which includes an invoice for April 30, 2024-April 29, 2025, a purchase order for the same timeframe, email chains between representatives from Dataminr and Property and Finance, a Service Order for the same timeframe, and a signed addendum. As for your first line item, "Any communications with employees or representatives of the company Dataminr," we have conducted a preliminary search, including the key term "Dataminr" within the date parameters given which has revealed approximately 925,082 emails. The operation of Dataminr generates an extensive amount of automated emails. In order to fulfill that line item, we would need to pull the emails, convert them to a PDF, then review and possibly redact them. This would be an extensive and extremely costly task. To put it in perspective, we estimate this to cost over $1,000,000.00. Our goal is to provide you with the information you are seeking, so if the above mentioned materials will satisfy that request, please let us know. Currently, the cost for this request is $24.80, which would include the documentation listed above. Please advise how you would like for us to proceed. This request will remain on hold until we hear from you.
The specific records VSP gathered - e.g. an invoice and a purchase order - are precisely the sort of records I had in mind when I submitted my request, and I’ve informed VSP to proceed with providing the delineated records for $24.80.
But apparently, over the last 15 months, VSP has received “approximately 925,082 emails” from “employees or representatives of the company Dataminr” - including “an extensive amount of automated emails.” It seems reasonable to assume that the vast majority of those emails are indeed automated alerts.
In order to find out, however, VSP estimates “this to cost over $1,000,000.00.”
This sets a new personal record for a cost estimate in response to a FOIA request, displacing the $32,359.72 the Virginia Department of Corrections estimated to give me records mentioning Rivan the prison canine over a two-week period in 2024.
I don’t have a million dollars to pay, but I have asked for the delineated records cited by VSP at the $24.80 cost, and I plan to submit follow-up requests concerning the “approximately 925,082 emails” to better understand who the Virginia State Police are paying Dataminr to surveil.