Alachua County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Alachua 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
Alachua Police Department
The Alachua Police Department operates two Flock Safety automated license plate readers, plus an additional ALPR-enabled camera, as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Alachua Police Department operates six 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
High Springs Police Department
The High Springs Police Department operates two Flock Safety automated license plate readers, plus two additional Redspeed cameras, as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
Gainesville Police Department
The Gainesville Police Department operates Paladin drones. The agency began its drone program in March 2021.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Drone XL (article promoted by company on LinkedIn)Gainesville Police Department 2023 Annual ReportWCJB News (local news)
The Gainesville Police Department spent $10,000 on Clearview AI face recognition technology for seven users in 2019.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of GainesvilleMuckRockMuckRock
The Gainesville Police Department is one of more than 275 law enforcement agencies with access to the Face Analysis Comparison & Examination System (FACES), a face recognition program maintained by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Investigators may upload an image to search more than 25-million Florida driver's license photos and mugshots.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Orlando SentinelCenter on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown LawPinellas County Sheriff's Office
In 2018, the Gainesville City Comission approved a $609,972 contract between the Gainsville Police Department and Axon. The department was supplied with 190 Tasers, 107 body cameras, and 107 signal units for patrol vehicles.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): WUFTThe Gainesville Sun
The Gainesville Police Department scanned 67,557 license plates in 2019 using Vigilant Solutions automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): MuckRock
Alachua County Sheriff's Office
The Alachua County Sheriff's office purchased 190 body-worn cameras in late 2021, early 2022.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): WCJBAlachua County Sheriff's Office
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office is one of more than 275 law enforcement agencies with access to the Face Analysis Comparison & Examination System (FACES), a face recognition program maintained by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Investigators may upload an image to search more than 25-million Florida driver's license photos and mugshots.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Orlando SentinelCenter on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown LawPinellas County Sheriff's Office
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office scanned 394,279 license plates in 2019 using Vigilant Solutions automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): MuckRock
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office has a camera registry program.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Alachua County Sheriff's Office
University of Florida Police Department
The University of Florida Police Department uses automated license plate readers. Vigilant Solutions ALPRs were installed 16 intersections surrounding the University's campus in 2020. Records show the university police also used NDI systems in 2017.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University of Florida NewsThe Gainesville SunVillage of North Palm Beach
The University of Florida Police Department uses Axon body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): UFPD Facebook pageFlorida Department of Law Enforcement
The University of Florida Police Department is one of more than 275 law enforcement agencies with access to the Face Analysis Comparison & Examination System (FACES), a face recognition program maintained by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Investigators may upload an image to search more than 25-million Florida driver's license photos and mugshots.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Orlando SentinelCenter on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown LawPinellas County Sheriff's Office
Santa Fe College Police Department
The U.S. Department of Justice awarded $28,490 to the Santa Fe College Police Department in 2016 as part of the Bureau of Justice Assistance's body-worn camera grant program.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): U.S Department of Justicewww.gainesville.comwww.insidehighered.com
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026