Gifts are super important for landing big contracts. I've heard a lot of stories about sending VPs Away suitcases or watches to catch their attention and initiate a sale.
There is a lot of outright corruption [1] and malfeasance [2] in the surveillance tech acquisition processes. It's probably because that process is so secret. Brandeis was right, "sunlight is the best disinfectant".
The strategy seems to be, "run the process in secret and present the result as a fait accompli". It's working.
The strategy seems to be, "run the process in secret and present the result as a fait accompli". It's working.
[1] https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/former-redflex-ceo-plea...
[2] https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7exem/banjo-ai-company-utah...