Madison County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Madison County.
Technology presence
What these categories mean
- ALPR
- Automated license plate readers (ALPR): camera systems that automatically capture, read, and log vehicle license 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. Extends the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Atlas, which enumerates real-time crime centers and camera registries but not standalone fixed-camera estates.
- 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, by agency
Madison County Sheriff's Office
The Madison County Sheriff's Office operates two Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Madison County Sheriff's Office has Axon body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): WHNT News 19
Huntsville Airport Police Department
The Huntsville Airport Police Department operates two Flock Safety automated license plate readers and other cameras as of June 2025. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Flock Safety
Huntsville Police Department
As of April 2024, the Huntsville Police Department operates two Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Flock SafetyThe News & ObserverThe News & Observer
The Huntsville Police Department used drones as of 2022.
The Huntsville Police Department's North Alabama Multi-Agency Crime Center uses police cameras, gunshot detection, and license plate readers, and facilitates intelligence sharing among multiple agencies.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): HuntsvilleWAFF48
The Huntsville Police Department obtained gunshot detection software in 2018.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): WAAY 31
Alabama A&M Department of Public Safety
The Alabama A&M Department of Public Safety received a Small, Rural, and Tribal Body-Worn Camera Program grant for $6,849 for 12 body-worn cameras in 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Justice & Security StrategiesJustice & Security Strategies
University of Alabama in Huntsville Police Department
The University of Alabama in Huntsville Police Department operates one drone as of 2013, according to data compiled by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegeblog.al.com
Hunstville Police Department
The Hunstville Police Department operates a "Security Camera Share Program."
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Huntsville Police Department
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026