When the city of Seattle contacted Fusus, one of the nation’s leading police surveillance tech companies, in 2023, a company exec did more than just send over a brochure — he offered to connect Seattle with a “peer” in Atlanta’s police department who was familiar with the company’s products.

This kicked off months of communication between Claudia Gross-Shader, a director in Seattle’s city auditor’s office, Marshall Freeman, who was introduced as the deputy chief administrative officer of the Atlanta Police Department, and other Seattle officials.

Seattle was hoping that Fusus’s Connect system — which ties together license plate readers, public cameras, and privately owned cameras into a single surveillance platform — could help them combat retail theft. The next year, after a Seattle Po

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