Thousands of people participate in a Fourth of July parade in Warren on Saturday, July 4, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger State and federal authorities looking for potential threats have long monitored parades, sporting events and county fairs in Vermont — and some town officials are onl y now finding out.  Last week, town clerks throughout Vermont received an email asking if they would voluntarily hand over a list of potential public and private events of at least 2,500 attendees in their respective towns. Susan Gage, Brandon’s town clerk and treasurer, had never heard of such a request in her 12-year tenure. The email came from the Vermont Homeland Security Unit, a state entity under Vermont State Police that’s fully funded by the federal government. The unit facilitates something called the Vermont Intelligence Center, which describes as its goal identifying signs of criminal and terrorism-related activity in the state.     “I suppose we just had a little fair in town, and if something horrible happened there, I would hope that there would be people that would respond quickly,” Gage said in an interview with VTDigger. “But at the same time … we don’t need monitoring.” Gage turned down the state’s request. “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. Lia Ernst, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, similarly had questions about how the information is stored and shared.  “When assessing whether these kinds of practices and data collection present a risk to people’s civil liberties, we would wonder what specific criteria law enforcement officials are using to assess whether an event is ‘high-risk’ or not, what tactics may be put into motion when an event is designated as such, and what safeguards are in place to ensure officials are not inhibiting people’s First Amendment rights through their actions,” she wrote in an email to 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 is required as part of the program to compile the list each year and forward it to the federal government, which rates the special events on a scale depending on if they meet certain criteria, such as national or international importance, potential threats to public safety and level of media attention. However, the towns have a choice of whether they want to contribute.   Using the list, the state homeland security unit can know when to prepare local and state law enforcement to assemble at events ahead of time, including concerts, parades, county fairs, marathons, firework displays, sporting events and holiday gatherings with at least 2,500 people, according to a special events form listed on the unit’s website.  While the list monitors the time and place of the events, the attendees themselves are not logged. The special events reporting form also asks for the event sponsors, any additional security controls, the expected number of attendees and whether a special events permit has been filed with state police.  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.  The exact level of needed support and resources from federal partners, along with coordination between state and federal law enforcement, is determined by a formal risk classification, according to LaFond.  In the past, the state’s events have never triggered the deployment of federal resources, LaFond wrote, adding that the state’s events “have limited national impact.”  “This program adds to the overall resilience of every community and helps local first responders and state public safety organizations have an overall view of large scale events in the state to better protect the citizens and guests of Vermont,” LaFond wrote. A precedent for monitoring In 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. The request was only sent to emergency services, such as local fire and police departments.  This year, however, the outreach for the list was expanded to town officials after a lack of input statewide from emergency services in previous years, Kenneth A. Deschaine, the Vermont Intelligence Center’s counter-terrorism and critical infrastructure analyst, wrote in an email to Gage that she provided to VTDigger.  LaFond noted that Vermont was not doing anything unusual in relation to the program, as their efforts are similar to those seen nationwide.  The list itself, he added, is maintained by the VIC for no longer than one year after the submission.  Gage, the Brandon town clerk, acknowledges that what she called her “paranoia” about the program — unfounded or otherwise — comes partly in light of her disapproval of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in the nation, much less Vermont.  After getting the email, Gage made an effort to reach out to several other town clerks to see if they had also received it. Some shared similar concerns as she did though not to the same degree, she noted.  Had the request been one town officials knew of in past years, Gage continued, she would not have been as alarmed.  “That’s the kind of emotions I think that are evoked now when our government is militarized against its citizens and its citizens’ neighbors,” Gage said.  Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont keeps a list of where large crowds gather. The feds get a copy.. ...read more read less