Polk County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Polk 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
Fosston Police Department
The Fosston Police Department has four Motorola body-worn cameras, according to a 2024 audit.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of Fosston - Fosston Police DepartmentRampart Audit LLC
Polk County Sheriff's Office
The Polk County Sheriff's Office used a drone at least 12 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
East Grand Forks Police Department
The East Grand Forks Police Department has eight WatchGuard body-worn cameras, according to a 2023 audit.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of East Grand Forks - East Grand Forks Police DepartmentLynn Lembcke ConsultingCity of East Grand ForksLynn Lembcke ConsultingMinn. Legislature - Legislative Commission on Data Practices
Crookston Police Department
The Crookston Police Department has 12 Axon body-worn cameras, according to a 2022 audit.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of Crookston - Crookston Police DepartmentLynn Lembcke Consulting
Fisher Police Department
The Fisher Police Department has an unmanned aerial vehicle program, according to a 2021 report from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026