Alpharetta, Georgia paid $17,680 in 2020 for five cameras and access to its Wing software. By 2025, that annual bill had reached $381,000.
WIRED reviewed records from more than two dozen cities and found the same pattern repeating: the initial contract price is rarely the final one.
The Starter Bill Is Just the Beginning
Covington, Georgia’s documented spending arc shows how a modest camera deployment becomes a six-figure annual commitment.
Covington paid roughly $40,000 annually in 2020 and 2021 to maintain 20 cameras. Adding 15 Falcon cameras in 2022 pushed that year’s total to $81,250, and by 2024 the city paid $113,225…