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
Lancaster Police Department
The Lancaster Police Department operates six Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Lancaster Police Department purchased body-worn cameras in 2016 with a $74,000 grant through the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Berkeley Observer
Elgin Police Department
As of April 2024, the Elgin Police Department operates two Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Flock SafetyThe News & ObserverThe News & Observer
The Elgin Police Department purchased body-worn cameras in 2016 with a $4,600 grant through the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Berkeley Observer
Sixth Circuit Public Defender's Office
The Sixth Circuit Public Defender's Office received $593.95 in state funding for body-worn cameras in fiscal year 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): South Carolina Department of Public SafetySouth Carolina Department of Public SafetySouth Carolina Department of Public Safety
Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office uses automated license plate readers as part of a statewide program managed by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Post and Courier
Lancaster County Sheriff's Office
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office purchased body-worn cameras in 2016 with a $186,267 grant through the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Berkeley Observer
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026