Champaign County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Champaign 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
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign Police Department
The University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign Police Department operates 20 Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety operates six Skydio drones. The agency conducted 13 drone flights between July 2023 and March 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public SafetyCollege FixIllinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety opened its Real-Time Information Center (RTIC) in March 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public SafetyCollege Fix
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety has 20 fixed Flock Safety automated license plate readers and uses Axon Fleet mobile ALPR in its patrol vehicles.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public SafetyCollege Fix
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety operates a community camera registry.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety uses AI video anlaytics.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety uses EAGL gunshot detection sensors.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Division of Public Safety
Champaign Police Department
As of April 2024, the Champaign Police Department operates 46 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Flock SafetyThe News & ObserverFox
The Champaign Police Department has two drones, according to the 2024 Illinois Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act Report.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
The Champaign Police Department received city council approval for a five-year, $1.6 million contract with Axon Enterprise to provide police with 42 in-car camera systems and 103 new body cameras in 2023. In 2018, the agency equipped all 122 of its officers with Panasonic body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards BoardFox
The Champaign Police Department installed Flock Safety gunshot detection technology in late 2022.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Chamgaign Police Department
Rantoul Police Department
As of April 2024, the Rantoul Police Department operates 34 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 Rantoul Police Department's 24 body-worn cameras are used by all 24 officers as of 2019.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board
Champaign County Sheriff's Office
The Champaign County Sheriff’s Office uses 56 Axon body-worn cameras as of 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards BoardIllinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board
The Champaign County Sheriff's Office has 10 automated license plate reader cameras, according to a 2023 report.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): News Gazette
Parkland College Police Department
The Parkland College Police Department has 15 WatchGuard body-worn cameras as of 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board
Tolono Police Department
The Tolono Police Department has eight body-worn cameras as of 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Police Department
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Police Department implemented their body-worn camera program in August 2018. The department has 74 Axon body-worn cameras as of 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards BoardIllinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board
Mahomet Police Department
The Mahomet Police Department operates 10 automated license plate reader cameras, according to a 2023 report. The agency planned to acquire six additional ALPRs in 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): News GazetteThe News-GazetteThe News-Gazette
Urbana Police Department
The Urbana Police Department has 60 body-worn cameras, as of 2019.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Police Department Parking Department
The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Parking Department uses Genetec automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Parking Department
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026