This article examines redeployable special event public camera surveillance in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We show how a policy discourse of situational awareness simultaneously adheres to and subverts principles articulated in the provincial privacy commissioner’s privacy protection policy framework on public surveillance. Drawing from interview and observational data, we analyse how understandings of situational awareness inform policy design and how policymaking and implementation processes diverge as local policymakers tailor an imported policy framework to address tacit knowledge about public safety. Our findings contribute to the sociology of policymaking by developing empirical insights into policy meanings, mobilities, mutations, and myths.