St. Clair County
County record. Includes every city and agency within St. Clair 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
Fairview Heights Police Department
The Fairview Heights Police Department has 49 Axon body-worn cameras as of 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board
The Fairview Heights Police Department has two drones, according to the 2024 Illinois Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act Report. The agency conducted two drone flights between July 2023 and March 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Belleville Police Department
The Belleville 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
Millstadt Police Department
The Millstadt Police Department has eight body-worn cameras as of 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board
Southwestern Illinois College Police Department
The Southwestern Illinois College 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
Swansea Police Department
The Swansea 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
St. Clair County Sheriff ’s Office
The St. Clair County Sheriff ’s Office has purchased two drones, according to the 2022 Illinois Freedom from Drome Surveillance Act Report
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): State of Illinois
Alton & Southern Railway Police
The Alton & Southern Railway Police has purchased three drones, according to the 2022 Illinois Freedom from Drome Surveillance Act Report
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): State of Illinois
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026