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SCP-4999 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-4999
Expected annual
$6.0M
One-time setup
$3.6M
Annual recurring
$5.9M
Personnel
40
One-time startup is modest (~$3.6M) focused on HQ, lab/IT and emergency reserve; annual recurring operations are the main driver (~$5.92M/yr) dominated by staff wages, monitoring/takedown operations, disinformation/PR, and administrative overhead.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $3.6M
Facilities $1.0M
[#1] Secure Containment Program HQ buildout (SCIF/secure SOC, offices, evidence storage).
Emergency Response Reserve $1.0M
[#17] Liquid contingency fund for immediate large-scale takedowns, mass amnestic deployments, buyouts; one-time seed reserve.
Equipment $730K
[#2, #3, #9, #15, #14] Secure evidence vault hardware and climate control (#2 $200k), 3 armored vans (#3 $150k), secure digital archive IT hardware one-time setup (#9 $200k), evidence disposal containment equipment (#15 $30k), predictive analytics initial dev (#14 $150k).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $600K
[#8, #23] Forensic analysis lab equipment (#8 $500k) and archival ingestion/digitization startup (#23 $100k).
Amnestic Stockpile Setup $100K
[#7] One-time manufacturing/setup of amnestic stockpile.
Media Crisis Buy $100K
[#6] One-off crisis buyout / emergency payments referenced as possible in #6.
Hospital Outreach Setup $50K
[#11] Initial outreach/training cost to hospitals and facilities.
Staff Training Setup $30K
[#19] Initial staff training program and PPE procurement setup.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $5.9M/yr
Staff Wages $2.4M/yr
[#4, #5, #8, #13, #14, #3, #20] Payroll for field investigators (~$1.4M), monitoring/data staff, forensic analyst, research team, data scientists, drivers and core administrative staff; aggregated from itemized payroll figures in notes.
Administrative Overhead $750K/yr
[#20] Back-office HR/finance/procurement overhead; analyst used ~15–25% of payroll (~$750k assuming payroll ~ $3M, #20).
Facilities Maintenance $620K/yr
[#1, #2] HQ operating costs, rent and physical security (~$600k/yr, #1) plus evidence vault environmental control & maintenance (~$20k/yr, #2).
Disinformation And Media Relations $350K/yr
[#6] Ongoing disinformation/media relations program (~$200k–$500k/yr; midpoint used here) for cover stories, paid placements, and small buyouts.
Research And Monitoring $270K/yr
[#8, #13, #22, #23] Forensic lab operations & consumables (net non-payroll ~#8 $70k), research travel and archives access (#13 $100k), small grants (#22 $50k), archival maintenance (#23 $50k).
Logistics And Transport $260K/yr
[#3, #4] Vehicle fuel/maintenance and drivers (~$60k/yr, #3) plus field investigation travel budgets (~$200k/yr travel portion of #4).
Cover Story And Legal $250K/yr
[#10] Legal counsel & liaison retainers and routine case fees (~$200k retainer + $50k case fees per #10).
Digital Monitoring $200K/yr
[#5] SOC licenses and average takedown/purchase fees (licenses ~$100k + average takedown spend ~$100k from #5).
International Liaison $150K/yr
[#12] Contract translators and local retainers for international incidents (~$150k/yr, #12).
Amnestic Program $100K/yr
[#7] Recurring per-case administration and QA/regulatory costs (~$50k per-case admin at 50 incidents + $50k QA/regulatory per #7).
Hospital Cooperation $100K/yr
[#11] MOUs, per-case access fees and ongoing cooperation costs with hospitals and facilities (~$100k/yr, #11).
Predictive Modeling And Tools $100K/yr
[#14] Cloud compute, model training and non-payroll tooling costs (~$100k/yr; #14 split between payroll and tooling).
Public Health Coordination $100K/yr
[#21] Social-worker liaisons and follow-up care coordination with public health bodies (~$100k/yr, #21).
It And Archive $100K/yr
[#9] Recurring hosting, backups, cybersecurity and maintenance for the secure digital archive (~$100k/yr, #9).
Ethical Oversight $80K/yr
[#16] IRB-style oversight board stipends and admin (~$80k/yr, #16).
Supplies And Consumables $70K/yr
[#24, #15] Office/evidence consumables and evidence bags/cameras (#24 $50k/yr) plus contracted hazardous waste disposal (~$20k/yr, #15).
Insurance And Liability $50K/yr
[#18] Program-level insurance/liability premiums (~$50k/yr, #18).
Staff Training And Ppe Maintenance $10K/yr
[#19] Ongoing refresher training and PPE replacement (~$10k/yr, #19).
Optional Prevention Program $0/yr
[#25] Optional targeted prevention (e.g. 24/7 sitters). Example given ~ $12M/yr for 100 hospitals; not included in baseline (set to 0 unless adopted).
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $5.9M/yr
81.5% probability / year
Normal operational year with steady monitoring, investigations, research, amnestic usage and routine takedowns; no major viral leaks or mass exposures.
routine_cases no_large_media_spike
🚨 Minor Incident $6.2M/yr
15.0% probability / year +$250K vs baseline
Localized viral leak or media spike requiring emergency takedowns, targeted buyouts, PR spends and modest legal action.
viral_video localized_leak unexpected_media_spike
🚨 Major Viral Leak $7.4M/yr
3.0% probability / year +$1.5M vs baseline
Significant nationwide leak or high-profile broadcast requiring mass takedowns, large PR/legal operations, partial replenishment of emergency reserves and expanded amnestic/medical response.
national_media_coverage mass_uncontrolled_sharing
🚨 Catastrophic Mass Exposure $10.9M/yr
0.5% probability / year +$5.0M vs baseline
Rare catastrophic event with mass exposures or a widely distributed recording requiring extensive mass amnestic deployment, major litigation, and long-term crisis operations.
widespread_distribution mass_exposure
👥 Personnel 40 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 4 [#1, #2] Facility and evidence vault security staffing.
Field Investigator / Agent 15 [#4] Field investigation team (15 FTE as assumed in notes; primary recurring payroll driver).
Digital Monitoring Analyst 4 [#5] SOC / social media monitoring analysts (4–8 noted; lower bound used).
Research Scientist 4 [#13] Historians/anthropologists/data analysts (3–5 noted; 4 used).
Data Scientist 2 [#14] Predictive analytics / model engineers (2 noted).
Forensic Analyst 1 [#8] Forensic lab analyst for residue/DNA/camera checks.
Medical Officer 2 [#7] Medical staff to administer amnestics and follow-up care.
Administrative Staff 4 [#20] HR, finance, procurement and back-office support.
IT / Sysadmin 1 [#9, #23] Secure archive and IT maintenance.
Driver / Courier 3 [#3] Drivers/couriers for armored vans and evidence transport.
📋 Confidence Notes
Line-item costs are well-specified in the analyst notes, but major uncertainties remain around event frequency, scale of takedown needs, and distribution of payroll vs contract costs; optional prevention program (#25) is intentionally excluded from baseline and would dramatically change totals if adopted.
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