Shelby County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Shelby 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
Shelby County Sheriff's Office
The Shelby County Sheriff's Office operates 41 Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Shelby County Sheriff's Office operates 26 Condor cameras from Flock Safety as of September 2025. The cameras are paired with video analytics software.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Shelby County Sheriff's Office operates two DJI drones as of 2015, 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 Collegeregistry.faa.govregistry.faa.gov
Pelham Police Department
The Pelham Police Department operates 56 Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Pelham Police Department operated drones as of 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of PelhamWBRCCenter for the Study of the Drone at Bard College
The Pelham Police Department received approval to purchase body-worn cameras in December 2022.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of PelhamPelham Police Department Facebook page
Calera Police Department
The Calera Police Department operates six Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Calera Police Department uses body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Calera Facebook pageCalera Facebook page
Columbiana Police Department
The Columbiana Police Department operates four Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Columbiana Police Department received $3,556 from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to purchase 13 body-worn cameras through the 2022 Small, Rural, Tribal BWC Microgrant program.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Small, Rural, and Tribal Body-Worn Camera microgrant grantee list
Helena Police Department
The Helena Police Department operates 15 Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
Montevallo Police Department
The Montevallo Police Department operates 15 Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
Alabaster Police Department
The Alabaster Police Department purchased two DJI Mavic 2 drones in 2022.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of AlabasterWBRCCenter for the Study of the Drone at Bard College
The Alabaster Police Department purchased 25 automated license plate readers from Flock Safety in May 2020.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of AlabasterShelby County Report
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026