Hays County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Hays 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.
- Fusion & investigative platforms
- Third-party platforms that fuse data across sources, sometimes including other surveillance feeds, for law-enforcement search and analysis, sold or licensed to multiple agencies rather than built by any one of them: examples include Palantir, Peregrine Systems, C3.ai, and SoundThinking's CrimeTracer (formerly Coplink X). Adjacent: an analytics layer that sits above the surveillance feeds this site otherwise tracks, rather than a sensing deployment of its own.
The record, by agency
Kyle Police Department
The Kyle Police Department has installed 26 Flock Safety automated license plate readers, according to data obtained in July 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Muckrock
The Kyle Police Department launched a real-time crime center in November 2024
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of KyleKXAN
The Kyle Police Department maintains a community cameras registry
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of KyleKyle Police Department
The Kyle Police Department uses Axon body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): joinkylepd.com
San Marcos Police Department
San Marcos Police Department uses Axon body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): San Marcos Police Facebook page
The San Marcos Police Department uses what it describes as "limited" face recognition technology in investigations.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University Star
The San Marcos Police Department uses Flock Safety automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Caldwell CountySan Marcos Police Department
The San Marcos Police Department operates one drone, 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.themonitor.com
Hays County Sheriff's Office
The Hays County Sheriff's Office received approval to use Clearview AI face recogntion technology in December 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): University Star
The Hays County Sheriff's Office received approval for a $6.86 million, seven-and-a-half-year contract with Axon Enterprise for public safety video surveillance upgrades. The $6.86 million will be paid in annual installments of $965,930.49 and includes body cameras, in-car cameras, tasers, and software and systems that incorporate the evidence into evidence.com.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): San Marcos Daily RecordSan Marcos Corridor NewsSan Marcos Daily Reocrd
No longer in use, per Hays County Commissioners Court minutes, October 14, 2025 (item 42353, motion to terminate all contracts with Flock Safety, 3-2 passed), as of October 2025.
Hays County stated that as of September 200, six cameras will be installed throughout the county at a cost of $17,000.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): KXAN-TVHays Free Press
Buda Police Department
6 cameras measured on the agency's Flock Safety transparency portal, via UnGovr, as of August 2026.
As of April 2024, the Buda Police Department operates six Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The News & ObserverThe News & Observer
The Buda Police Department has been using Axon body-worn cameras since 2015.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Hays Free Press
Hays County Sheriff’s Office
The Hays County Sheriff’s Office enetered a $19,485, three-year contract with Clearview AI.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): KXON
Texas State University Police Department
The Texas State University Police Department uses body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Texas State University Police Department Facebook page
Sources: UnGovr press monitoring · UnGovr agency records · Flock Safety transparency portals · EFF Atlas of Surveillance