The surveillance technology governments operate
WatchWatch documents the surveillance technology governments operate, from license-plate readers and cameras to face recognition, drones, and acoustic sensors. It is building a worldwide record, so far covering the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, with a citation behind every entry.
14,091 deployments on record 9,073 agencies 7 countries so far 9 technologies on record
An observatory, not a campaign: WatchWatch records what exists and its status; readers draw their own conclusions. About this site →
The observatories
One observatory per country, expanding worldwide. Covered so far: the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. Deployments on the public record, mapped by local jurisdiction and technology.
United States
13,942 deployments · 8,969 agencies · 56 states and territories · Explore the United States →
The record also covers Puerto Rico · U.S. Virgin Islands · Guam · American Samoa · Northern Mariana Islands.
The technologies
The categories the observatory tracks, counted across every covered jurisdiction. A zero means none on record, not necessarily none in operation. New to the subject? The technologies page explains each in plain language.
ALPR 4,167 Fixed cameras & RTCC 348 Face recognition 993 Drones / UAS 1,816 Gunshot detection 246 Body-worn & dashcam 5,480 Doorbell & camera registry 756 Cell-site simulators 84 Predictive policing 201 Social-media monitoring 0
The oversight layer
The record currently documents deployments: that a system is in operation, per public sources. It does not yet record the oversight around each system — whether the agency has published a use policy, whether the public has a path to the footage or data, what data-sharing is disclosed, and what legislation governs the technology.
Those records come from public-records requests, filed within each jurisdiction's law. Until a jurisdiction's records arrive, its oversight status reads not yet requested — a status, not a verdict.
How this record is built
Every entry keeps its citations, and the oversight layer is built from each jurisdiction's own public-records law. Full sourcing and methodology, including what this data is and is not, are on the methodology page.