New York County
County record. Includes every city and agency within New York 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
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department operates a Drone as First Responder (DFR) program.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland SecurityACLU of New YorkACLU of New York
The New York City Police Department uses Argus stationary and mobile automated license plate readers. The agency operates approximately 500 automated license plate readers as part of its Domain Awareness System
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): New York City Police DepartmentHuffington PostBrennan Center for Justice
The New York Police Department has acquired a cell-site simulator from KeyW, which has since between acquired by Jacobs Technology.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Brennan Center for JusticeVocativKevin Collier
The New York City Police Department has been using face recognition since 2011 and updated its policies most recently in 2020. According to the NYPD, in 2019 the Facial Identification Section received 9,850 requests for comparison and identified 2,510 possible matches.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): NYPDGeorgetown LawNew York Post
The New York Police Department opened its real-time crime center in 2005 at cost of $11 million. The RTCC is located wihthin the NYPD Headquarters in New York City and is staffed with more than 40 detectives and civilian analysts. In 2019, a report from the Brennan Center detailed the purchase of facial recognition technology and ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology. The RTCC also provides access to a variety of databases and data analytical software.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): New York Police DepartmentNYPDBrennan Center
According to the Brennan Center for Justice: "The NYPD uses its own proprietary system that tries to locate hotspots for a particular crime based on an unknown number and type of data inputs."
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Brennan Center for JusticeBrennan Center for JusticeBrennan Center for Justice
The New York Police Department started its body-worn camera program in 2017 and had outfitted all patrol officers with cameras as of March 2019.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Brennan Center for JusticeNYPDNYPD
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the New York Police Department's video analytics system "is intended to automatically alert NYPD officials to activities, such as 'suspicious package was left' or “loitering.'"
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Brennan Center for JusticeThe Intercept
The New York City Police Department began using ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology in 2015.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): New York City Government
New York City Department of Environmental Protection
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection Police has one drone, according to a 2022 report from the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): ACLU of New York
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department
The Metropolitan Transit Authority Police scanned 2,536,196 license plates in 2017 using Vigilant Solutions automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): MuckRock
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026