Benton County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Benton 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
Benton County Sheriff's Office
The Benton County Sheriff's Office used a drone at least 7 times in 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Minnesota Department of Public SafetyMinnesota Bureau of Criminal ApprehensionCenter for the Study of the Drone at Bard College
The Benton County Sheriff's Office has 24 WatchGuard body-worn cameras, according to a 2023 audit.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Benton County - Benton County Sheriff's OfficeLynn Lembcke ConsultingBenton County - Benton County Sheriff's OfficeLynn Lembcke ConsultingMinn. Legislature - Legislative Commission on Data Practices
The Benton County Sheriff's Office disclosed to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that it uses automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension
Sauk Rapids Police Department
The Sauk Rapids Police Department spent $12,461 on its unmanned aerial vehicle program in 2023 and flew a drone 28 times without a warrant that year.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Minnesota Department of Public SafetyMinnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension
The Sauk Rapids Police Department has 18 Axon body-worn cameras, according to a 2023 audit.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of Sauk Rapids - Sauk Rapids Police DepartmentLynn Lembcke Consulting
The Sauk Rapids Police Department began using automated license plate readers in 2019.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): SC Times
Rice Police Department
The Rice Police Department operated drones as of 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Minnesota Department of Public Safety
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026