South Australia
Technology presence
What these categories mean
- ANPR
- Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR): camera systems that automatically capture, read, and log vehicle number plates with location and time, producing a searchable record of vehicle movements.
- Fixed cameras & RTCC
- Agency-operated fixed video cameras and the real-time crime centers (RTCC) that aggregate live and recorded feeds for monitoring.
- Face recognition
- Software that matches faces in images or video against a reference database to identify or verify individuals.
- Drones / UAS
- Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), commonly called drones, operated by an agency for overhead observation, imaging, or sensing.
- Gunshot detection
- Networks of acoustic sensors that detect and locate suspected gunfire and alert an agency.
- Body-worn & dashcam
- Officer body-worn and in-vehicle dashboard cameras that record encounters; public access to the footage is frequently restricted.
- Doorbell & camera registry
- Programs that give an agency access to privately owned camera footage: doorbell-camera partnerships, citizen camera registries, and private-camera integration platforms.
- Cell-site simulators
- Devices that mimic cell towers to locate or identify nearby mobile phones. They are often called Stingrays, or IMSI catchers after the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number that identifies each phone on a network. Adjacent: communications surveillance outside the visual/sensor core.
- Predictive policing
- Software that forecasts where crime may occur or who may be involved, to direct policing. Adjacent: analytics rather than a sensing deployment.
- Social-media monitoring
- Tools that collect and analyze public social-media activity for an agency. Adjacent: open-source/communications monitoring outside the visual/sensor core.
The record
A February 2026 tender (SAPOL058288, Mobile Automated Number Plate Recognition Replacement Program) sought replacement of the existing in-vehicle MANPR fleet, specifying an immediate upgrade of 20 in-vehicle units, four spare kits, and a centralised ANPR hot list management system, with coverage regions spanning metropolitan Adelaide and all country regions. Vehicle-mounted mobile ANPR operated statewide.
Sources: SA Tenders and Contracts notice SAPOL058288, MANPR Replacement Program (via Australian Tenders)
Body-worn video is mandatory for general duties uniformed officers, running on the VideoManager digital evidence platform under an April 2023 SAPOL general order. The program traces to a June 2015 state budget committing $5.9 million over four years toward up to 1,000 cameras. Specialist tactical officers are not currently required to wear cameras, a gap the Deputy State Coroner has recommended closing.
Sources: iTnews, SA funds tablets and body-worn cameras for police (Jun 2015)SAPOL General Order, body worn video and VideoManager (Apr 2023)O'Brien Solicitors, mandatory police body-worn cameras analysis (Apr 2024)
In November 2021 Adelaide City Council voted to bar police facial recognition on the council's replacement CCTV network; the existing police deployment was not reversed. A live NEC NeoFace facial recognition system integrated with Adelaide city-centre CCTV has operated since 2019, following 2017 trials.
Sources: Griffith Law Review (2023), police use of facial recognitioniTnews, SA Police and the Adelaide council facial-recognition vote
SAPOL holds a current CASA Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operator's Certificate, indicating continuing aerial operations. Drones have operated since a 2013 tender for four quadcopters costing about $200,000, specified for overt search-and-rescue support and covert investigative surveillance across metropolitan Adelaide and rural areas, with deployment within 30 minutes from a standard police vehicle.
Sources: Delimiter, SA Police buys drone fleet (Nov 2013)CASA remotely piloted aircraft certificate register, South Australia Police
Source: the public record. Australian police-force and government publications, regulator decisions, and Victorian Government open data (Road Safety Camera Network dataset); per-entry citations on each record · retrieved July 2026