Vermont keeps a list of where large crowds gather. The feds get a copy.

The email came from the Vermont Homeland Security Unit, a state entity under Vermont State Police that’s fully funded by the federal government. “I can’t help but wonder about the motivations or ‘masked’ incentives in this request,” she responded to Paul Locke, the Vermont Homeland Security Unit’s program planner, in an email she shared with VtDigger. The state homeland security unit’s annual request is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Special Event Assessment Rating program, also known as SEAR. Vermont’s participation in the program has been ongoing since 2007, Director of the Vermont Homeland Security Unit Ronald LaFond wrote in an email to VtDigger. A precedent for monitoringIn 2025, the Vermont Intelligence Center compiled a statewide directory of events that attracted at least 1,000 people, according to the Vermont Homeland Security Unit’s website.