Montgomery County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Montgomery 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
Montgomery County Police Department
The Montgomery County Police Department launched a Drone as First Responder (DFR) program in 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): NBC4 WashingtonMontgomery County Department of Policewww.faa.gov
The Montgomery County Police operates a real-time crime center.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Montgomery County Website
The Montgomery County Police Department uses Axon body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Montgomery County Police Accountability Board (PAB) Annual ReportMontgomery County Police Department (Annual Report Document)
In 2018, the Montgomery County Police Department scanned 1,145,437 license plates using automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Maryland House Judiciary Committee DisclosureCapital News Service
Chevy Chase Police Department
The Chevy Chase Police Department received $20,404 from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to purchase 11 body-worn cameras through the 2022 Small, Rural, Tribal BWC Microgrant program.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Small, Rural, and Tribal Body-Worn Camera microgrant grantee list
Montgomery County Sheriff's Department
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office has used body-worn cameras since at least 2016.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Montgomery County Sheriff's OfficeNBC 4
Gaithersburg Police Department
The Gaithersburg Police Department has used body-worn cameras since 2015.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Gaithersburg Police DepartmentNBC 4WTOP
The Gaithersburg Police Department adopted a policy for automated license plate readers in 2014.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Gaithersburg Police Department
The Gaithersburg Police Department maintains a voluntary registry of private and personal surveillance cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of Gaithersburg
Rockville City Police Department
The Rockville City Police Department has used body-worn cameras since at least 2017.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Rockville Police DepartmentNBC 4
The Rockville City Police Department maintains a voluntary registry of private and personal surveillance cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of Rockville
Takoma Park Police Department
The Takoma Park Police Department has been using body-worn cameras since 2015.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Takoma Police Department PolicyNBC 4
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026