Nevada County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Nevada 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
Nevada County Sheriff's Department
As of April 2024, the Nevada County Sheriff's Office operates 12 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 U.S. Department of Justice awarded $123,000 to the Nevada County Sheriff's Office in 2018 as part of the Bureau of Justice Assistance's body-worn camera grant program.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): U.S Department of Justiceyubanet.comwww.mynevadacounty.com
Grass Valley Police Department
As of April 2024, the Grass Valley Police Department operates 28 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
Grass Valley Police Department uses the Fusus camera registry system.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): 404 Media
According to reporting from The Markup, the Grass Valley Police Department used PredPol (now Geolitica) between 08/30/18 and 09/03/19.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Markup
The Grass Valley Police Department operated drones as of 2021.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Grass Valley Police DepartmentGrass Valley UnionCenter for the Study of the Drone at Bard College
Truckee Police Department
As of April 2024, the Truckee Police Department operates 23 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 Truckee Police Department uses Axon body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Nevada CountyThe UnionTruckee Police Department Facebook Page
Nevada City Police Department
The Nevada City Police Department uses Axon body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Nevada CountyNevada City Police DepartmentNevada City Police Department Facebook Page
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026