Indiana State Police wants nearly $30 million in federal money to buy covert surveillance cameras, cell-site simulators that track phones, license-plate readers, and dozens of new vehicles. The funding comes from a Department of Justice program built specifically for police agencies partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Indiana troopers are already using that partnership: state records show 185 troopers certified to carry out federal immigration duties and hundreds of detainments carried out under the agreement so far.

This isn't routine equipment spending. Once purchased, covert cameras and phone-tracking tools don't disappear when the federal partnership ends — they become permanent additions to how state police watch Hoosiers, with almost no independent check on how they're used.

"They are downplaying their involvement but they are indeed involved," according to Cole Varga, CEO of Exodus Refugee Immigration, describing the gap between how ISP has framed the grant and what the application itself lays out.

Because the request needed no state matching funds and added no new staff, it never went before Indiana's State Budget Committee for a real vote — lawmakers only received it as a report. Governor Mike Braun's office and the State Budget Committee both have the standing to demand a full public review before this money is accepted and this equipment hits the streets.

Hoosiers deserve to know how their state police will use covert surveillance technology before it's bought, not after. Sign the petition to demand the Indiana State Budget Committee hold a real, public review of this $30 million surveillance request before ISP accepts a dollar of it.