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

Vermont town clerks were asked to voluntarily submit lists of public and private events with at least 2,500 attendees to the Vermont Homeland Security Unit, which forwards the data to the federal government under the Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) program. Some officials, including Brandon’s town clerk Susan Gage and the ACLU of Vermont, expressed concerns about civil liberties and the motivations behind the data collection.