Napa County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Napa 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
Napa County Sheriff's Department
As of April 2024, the Napa County Sheriff's Office operates five 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 Napa County Sheriff's Office operated drones as of 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Napa Valley RegisterNapa County Sheriff's OfficeCenter for the Study of the Drone at Bard College
Napa Police Department
As of April 2024, the Napa Police Department operates 15 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
Calistoga Police Department
As of April 2024, the Calistoga Police Department operates six 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
American Canyon Police Department
The American Canyon Police Department operates automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): American Canyon Chamber of CommerceMuckrock
St. Helena Police Department
The Saint Helena Police Department operates four Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency retains data for 30 days.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): PatchFlock SafetySaint Helena Police Department
Napa County Sheriff
ALPR in use by Napa County Sheriff, on the public record through two independent sources: news reporting that names the agency as operating the technology, and requests received on the agency's own public records request log that reference it.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): News coverageUnited States records-law analysis
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026