District of Columbia County
County record. Includes every city and agency within District of Columbia 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
Metropolitan Police Department
The Metropolitan Police Department uses drones. The agency implemented its drone program and purchased five drones for a total of $75,000 in June 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Metropolitan Police DepartmentWJLAMPD
The Metropolitan Police Department acquired license plate readers from ELSAG as early as 2010.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Metropolitan Police DepartmentWAMU 88.5ELSAG
The Metropolitan Police Department obtained BriefCam software in 2015.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): BuzzfeedGovernment of DC Metropolitan Police Department AgendaBriefCam Powerpoint
The Metropolitan Police Department D.C. maintains a voluntary registry of private and personal surveillance cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Metropolitan Police Department DCWashington, DCdcist
The Metropolitan Police Department finished building out its ShotSpotter gunshot detection system in 2009.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Washington PostDCistmpdc.dc.gov
The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department first acquired cell-site simulator technology in 2003.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): VocativKevin CollierVice
The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington D.C. obtained 2,800 body-worn cameras in 2016.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Metropolitan Police DepartmentMetropolitan Police DepartmentNational Institute of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI purchased Jacob Engineering's KeyW cell site simulator in FY 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): FBI
Washington, D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Washington D.C.’s Department of Motor Vehicles responds to face recognition requests from FBI FACE Services Unit.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Electronic Frontier FoundationGovernment Accountability Office
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026