Jefferson County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Jefferson 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
Lamar University Police Department
The Lamar University Police Department uses Flock Safety automated license plate readers, according to data obtained in July 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Muckrock
Groves Police Department
The Groves Police Department received $110,918 towards its body-worn camera program in October 2024 from the Texas Governor's Public Safety Office.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Texas Office of the Governor
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office submitted a policy related to drones and the use of force to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Texas Commission On Law Enforcement
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office uses body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Jefferson County Commissioner's CourtFacebookwww.wbrc.com
Nederland POlice Department
The Nederland POlice Department submitted a policy related to drones and the use of force to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Texas Commission On Law Enforcement
Beaumont Police Department
The Beaumont Police Department opened its real-time crime center in July 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Beaumont PoliceCity of Beaumont, Texas' YouTube Channel
The Beaumont Police Department announced in late 2022 that it would install automated license plate readers on 50 vehicles.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): 12 News Now
The Beaumont Police Department operates one drone as of 2017, 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 College
The Beaumont Police Department maintains a camera registry via Axon.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Axon
Port Arthur Police Department
The Port Arthur Police Department acquired BodyWorn body-worn cameras in 2017.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Port Arthur News
The Port Arthur Police Department scanned 80,484 license plates in 2018 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