Kandiyohi County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Kandiyohi 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
Willmar Police Department
The Willmar Police Department has 14 Flock Safety automated license plate readers and other cameras as of July 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Flock Safety
The Willmar Police Department used a drone at least 20 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
Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office
The Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office has 41 WatchGuard body-worn cameras, according to a 2024 audit.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Kandiyohi County - Kandiyohi County Sheriff's OfficeLynn Lembcke ConsultingKandiyohi County - Kandiyohi County Sheriff's OfficeMinn. Legislature - Legislative Commission on Data PracticesRampart Audit LLC
The Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office spent $1000 on its unmanned aerial vehicle program in 2023 and flew a drone 10 times without a warrant that year.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Minnesota Department of Public SafetyMinnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension
Atwater Police Department
The Atwater Police Department has one WatchGuard body-worn cameras, according to a 2022 audit.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of Atwater - Atwater Police DepartmentMinn. Legislature - Legislative Commission on Data PracticesRampart Audit LLC
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026