Ada County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Ada 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
Ada County Sheriff's Office
The Ada County Sheriff's Office uses automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Ada County Sheriff's Policy ManualKTVB
The Ada County Sheriff's Office operated DJI drones as of 2017, upgrading them as recently as 2019.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Ada County Sheriff's OfficeAda County Sheriff's OfficeCenter for the Study of the Drone at Bard College
The Ada County Sheriff's Office has had Axon body-worn cameras since 2014.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Ada County Sheriff's Office
Meridian Police Department
The Meridian Police Department installed Flock Safety automated license plate readers in 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): KTVB
The Meridian Police Department operates one drone as of 2017, according to data compiled by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegewww.facebook.com
Boise Police Department
The Boise Police Department operates four DJI drones as of 2018, according to data compiled by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegewww.kivitv.com
Idaho State Police
The Idaho State Police Department operates six DJI drones as of 2016, according to data compiled by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegewww.krem.com
Garden City Police Department
The Garden City Police Department implemented a body-worn camera policy in 2018.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Garden City Police DepartmentGarden City Police DepartmentGarden City Police Department
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026