Coles County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Coles 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
Coles County Sheriff's Office
The Coles County Sheriff’s Office has 23 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 Coles County Sheriff's Office has installed automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): JG-TC
Mattoon Police Department
The Mattoon Police Department uses 39 Mobile-Vision 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 Mattoon Police Department has one drone according to the 2024 Illinois Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act Report.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
The Mattoon Police Department received approval to install 12 Flock Safety automatedl icense plate readers in March 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): JG-TC
Charleston Police Department
The Charleston Police Department uses 35 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 Charleston Police Department uses Flock safety automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): JG-TC
Oakland Police Department
The Oakland Police Department has installed automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): JG-TC
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026