Award Winning Truthout.org Published My Reporting About Freddie's Surveillance MOU
My concerns about Freddie's surveillance MOU, many of the same issues the Mayor's Office has called "misinformation," was reviewed by professional editors and fact checkers.
WHEN I FIRST LEARNED
about Mayor O’Connell’s surveillance MOU, I reached out to national media with expertise on surveillance to see what I was looking at. I was hoping they could help dispel my concerns that what is happening here is extremely alarming. Instead, they confirmed my alarm, and in fact, they offered to let me write an article for a national audience on the topic.
The award winning Truthout.org edited, fact checked, and published my findings in an article they published yesterday.
I was honored to share a byline with the highly respected surveillance researcher and reporter Ed Vogel. He helped add national context to this reporting and reached out to local entities on behalf of Truthout to get their side of the story in the event that they wouldn’t want to talk to me.
This article contains fully vetted and fact checked information.
But there are things that could not be verified in this reporting process.
For example: The O’Connell administration and Nashville Downtown Partnership claim the state grant has already been awarded to NDP, and frame this resolution as merely adding “limits” on fund usage—and not as a requirement for obtaining the grant. This was not able to be verified or disproven.
However, the MOU and resolution language appear to contradict this. The resolution states that the attached document is “part of the application to the State of Tennessee, Office of Criminal Justice Programs.” And while the MOU language does require NDP to “Ensure all expenditures of funds from the DPSG grant appear on the list provided in Exhibit A”— it’s unclear whether this serves to limit NDP’s purchases or obligates NDP to purchase the listed items on behalf of Metro. Notably, the language of the MOU in no way resembles what “unallowable expenses” language typically looks like in contracts. As an example, one can look to the state grant solicitation attached to the MOU (see footnote) which explicitly details unallowable expenses.1
Verifying these competing claims would require examining the actual grant application and any award letter—documents that have not been made publicly available. Neither the Mayor’s Office nor NDP provided these documents or responded to Truthout’s requests for comment.
UPDATE
A lobbyist for the Nashville Downtown Partnership has sent a communication to some Council Members that appears to confirm that some of this technology is indeed a form of surveillance technology. Unlike other elements of the MOU, he is asserting that these two tools would require specific approval by Metro Council to be implemented. He does not explicitly state why this is the case, but this aligns with what I published yesterday about these two line items in the MOU.
The only new technology contemplated in this agreement are Leosight and Fivecast, described as situational awareness tools that will be integrated into the community safety center. It is important to note that both of those pieces of software would require separate Council approval before implementation. This money is not being used to expand the scope of MNPD services or purchase much discussed technology platforms including LPRs or FUSUS.
However, since these tools are indeed are clearly definable as “surveillance technology,” then this MOU resolution would likely need a public hearing to be passed.
The regulation about public hearings (see footnote)2 is not limited to the actual contract for services, but includes legislation that takes the form of: “(3) Accepting state or federal funds or in-kind or other donations for surveillance technology.” If this MOU is obligating NDP to purchase these things on behalf of Metro and provide them to Metro, then this MOU would likely require a public hearing to be passed. This may give some context as to why this is being framed as a “oversight” resolution, rather than a document that is detailing how NDP will purchase things for Metro.
However, the lobbyist for NDP has made it explicit that their understanding of the arrangement being discussed in this MOU that “gifts” will be provided to Metro purchased by NDP from the grant. If any of these “gifts” detailed in the MOU are definable as “surveillance technology”, this would require a public hearing.
Here’s other coverage on the topic:
News Channel 5: Safety or surveillance? $15M downtown Nashville plan sparks debate
WKRN: Downtown Nashville could see new surveillance tech after $15M state grant
Nashville Banner: Mayor’s Office Quietly Files Resolution to Allow Surveillance Use by Downtown Partnership
CityCast Nashville: TN-07 Results! Plus, Is Downtown Getting Mass Surveillance? With Nashville Banner’s Stephen Hale
About Ed Vogel
Ed Vogel is a researcher and organizer with Lucy Parsons Labs, a Chicago-based nonprofit that challenges police surveillance through investigative journalism, public records litigation, and education. His work on surveillance technology has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, The Appeal, Tech Policy Press, Inquest, and South Side Weekly. He recently testified in court proceedings regarding the Atlanta Police Foundation’s attempts to withhold public records about “Cop City.” In short: when it comes to surveillance MOUs, this is one of the foremost experts in the country.
About Truthout
Truthout is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) news organization founded in 2001 that operates on principles of accuracy, transparency, and independence from corporate and political influence. They accept no advertising or corporate backing, relying primarily on reader donations (averaging 81% of their annual budget) with support from a handful of foundations. Their staff includes dedicated fact-checkers, and submitted articles go through professional editorial review before publication.
Truthout’s reporting has been cited by major outlets including CNN and CBS’s 60 Minutes, and has been entered into the congressional record—a 2010 House Transportation Committee hearing cited their investigative reporting as a document for the committee’s investigation into pipeline safety following the BP oil spill.
Truthout received the 2021 Izzy Award for “outstanding achievement in independent media” from Ithaca College’s Park Center for Independent Media. The Izzy Award is named after legendary muckraking journalist I.F. Stone, and past recipients include Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, and Mother Jones. Truthout journalists have earned additional recognition including the 2018 Izzy Award (Dahr Jamail for climate reporting), Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism (Gareth Porter, 2012), Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award (Maya Schenwar, 2013), First Amendment Award (Candice Bernd, 2020), and San Francisco Press Club Journalism Awards for a joint investigative series on toxic prisons (2018).
Ground News aggregates multiple media rating services and rates Truthout’s factuality as “High.” In 2009, Truthout became the first online-only news organization in the United States to unionize, with staff represented by the NewsGuild-CWA.
In 2023, Truthout launched the Center for Grassroots Journalism to support emerging progressive news organizations. In November 2025, they acquired The Appeal, a criminal justice-focused news site, expanding their capacity for accountability journalism.
The “Unallowable Costs” section of the attached state grant solicitation as an example of what it looks like to actually limit the use of funds associated with a grant.
