Lancaster County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Lancaster 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
Lincoln Police Department
The Lincoln Police Department uses Axon body-worn cameras. The agency began using body-worn cameras in 2017.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Lincoln Police DepartmentLincoln Police Department1011 Now
The Lincoln Police Department operates one drone as of 2019, according to data compiled by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegewww.faa.gov
The Lincoln Police Department uses ELSAG automated licnese plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Lincoln Journal Star
Lancaster County Sheriff's Office
The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office uses Motorola body-worn cameras. The agency received $1 million from the Commerce Justice and Science Appropriations Act for body-worn cameras in 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Lancaster County Sheriff's Office FacebookNTV news
The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office searches automated license plate reader data.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice
The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office operates one DJI Matrice 210 drone as of 2018, according to data compiled by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegejournalstar.com
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department uses body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Lincoln Journal Star
Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles
Nebraska’s Department of Motor Vehicles responds to face recognition requests from FBI’s FACE Services Unit, and offers access to some employees of the Nebraska State Patrol, the Lincoln Police Department, and the Omaha Police Department. Nebraska will also respond to requests from federal, state, or local law enforcement involving a criminal matter or ongoing investigation.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Electronic Frontier FoundationGovernment Accountability Office
Nebraska State Patrol
The Nebraska State Patrol uses automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Lincoln Journal Star
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026