Santa Barbara County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Santa Barbara 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
Lompoc Police Department
The Lompoc Police Department operates 56 Flock Safety automated license plate readers and other cameras as of June 2025. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days.
The Lompoc City Council approved the purchase of 55 body-worn cameras in August 2023. The cameras record automatically on the sound of gunfire and during foot pursuits, and are worn by jail officers as well as patrol officers. The Lompoc Police Department deployed them, with upgraded in-car camera systems, on March 21, 2024.
Sources (EFF Atlas, with an UnGovr correction): City of LompocLompoc RecordKSBYCity of Lompoc
Santa Barbara Police Department
As of April 2024, the Santa Barbara Police Department operates 12 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The News & ObserverThe News & Observer
The Santa Barbara Police Department began using Motorola body-worn cameras in 2021.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of Santa Barbara created the link. It is a press release.KSBY
Santa Maria Police Department
The Santa Maria Police Department announced the launch of its body-worn camera program on September 28, 2023. The City Council had approved funding for the cameras in the 2022-24 city budget.
Agency records and press reporting, via UnGovr: Santa Maria Police DepartmentKSBY
The Santa Maria Police Department received city council approval for a three-year contract with Flock Safety for 31 automated license plate readers in 2021.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Santa Maria TimesNoozhawk
The Santa Maria Police Department purchased four drones for $20,000. The agency made its first drone-assisted arrest in 2020.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Santa Maria TimesSanta Maria Police Facebook page
The Santa Maria Police Department operates a voluntary Security Camera Registry. Residents and business owners register the location of privately owned cameras; the department does not receive access to any footage or feed, and contacts registrants to request a copy of recordings when a crime occurs nearby. No vendor platform is named in the program materials, which date to 2018.
Agency records and press reporting, via UnGovr: City of Santa MariaAbout the Security Camera Registry (City of Santa Maria)
Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office installed 25 Flock Safety automated license plate readers in 2022 as part of a one-year trial.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Edhat
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office has equipped part of its force with body-worn cameras since a pilot began in 2014. The most recent account on record, from May 2017, describes 30 cameras deployed among Isla Vista Foot Patrol deputies, school resource deputies, community resource deputies and court bailiffs. No record was found of a later agency-wide rollout.
Agency records and press reporting, via UnGovr: Santa Maria SunNoozhawk
City of Buellton
Nothing on the public record. The sources compiled so far document no surveillance technology here. That means none on record, not necessarily none in operation.
Agency name: FBI Crime Data Explorer agency directory
City of Carpinteria
Nothing on the public record. The sources compiled so far document no surveillance technology here. That means none on record, not necessarily none in operation.
Agency name: FBI Crime Data Explorer agency directory
City of Goleta
Nothing on the public record. The sources compiled so far document no surveillance technology here. That means none on record, not necessarily none in operation.
Agency name: FBI Crime Data Explorer agency directory
City of Guadalupe
Nothing on the public record. The sources compiled so far document no surveillance technology here. That means none on record, not necessarily none in operation.
Agency name: UnGovr agency records
City of Solvang
Nothing on the public record. The sources compiled so far document no surveillance technology here. That means none on record, not necessarily none in operation.
Agency name: FBI Crime Data Explorer agency directory
Sources: UnGovr press monitoring · UnGovr agency records · Flock Safety transparency portals · FBI Crime Data Explorer · EFF Atlas of Surveillance