Marion County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Marion 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
Marion Police Department
The Marion Police Department operates 11 Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Marion Police Department purchased body-worn cameras in 2016 with a $15,723 grant through the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Berkeley Observer
Sellers Police Department
The Sellers Police Department received $3260 in state funding for body-worn cameras in fiscal year 2019.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): South Carolina Department of Public SafetySouth Carolina Department of Public SafetySouth Carolina Department of Public Safety
Marion County Sheriff's Office
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office purchased body-worn cameras in 2016 with a $21,000 grant through the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Berkeley Observer
Mullins Police Department
The Mullins Police Department purchased body-worn cameras in 2016 with a $13,485 grant through the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Berkeley Observer
Nichols Police Department
The Nichols Police Department purchased body-worn cameras in 2016 with a $2,400 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