Find Out What Surveillance Techniques Your Local Police Station Uses
Recent weeks have seen an increased focus on police department policies and practices, as well as on decision-making on police brutality , surveillance and lack of accountability. It’s worth knowing that even if you live in a seemingly sleepy city, the local police department is probably doing some kind of surveillance, and now you can find out exactly what methods they use .
The Surveillance Atlas , a project created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the University of Nevada, Reynolds Reno’s School of Journalism, is a searchable database of surveillance tools used in police departments across the country.
There are two ways to use the tool. You can highlight your area on the map, or enter your city, county, or state in the search box to find your local police department in a text database.
With both methods, you can narrow your search by observation type:
- Body Cameras
- Drones
- Automatic license plate readers
- Ring / Neighbors Partnership
- Camera registry
- Face recognition
- Cellular Simulator
- Shot detection
- Video analytics / computer vision
- Predictive Police
This allows you to see if the police are filming doorbell cameras, filming aerial footage with drones, or using prediction tools to tell you where to look for a crime. You can also find so-called “merger centers” and “real-time crime centers” – centers from which law enforcement agencies collect, analyze and share data.
When you open a database entry or click a location on a map, you will receive additional information about the surveillance technology the department prefers, including how long it has been in use and how it has worked with other organizations or companies. You can also turn certain surveillance methods on and off on the map to see how their use is concentrated or spread across the country.
If you are not sure exactly how any of these surveillance tools work, switch the Glossary at the top of the page to see photos and descriptions of the technologies involved.
Finally, please note that just because your local police department is not marked on the map does not mean that it is conducting unattended policing. This may simply mean that the researchers have not yet collected data about your area.