McLennan County
County record. Includes every city and agency within McLennan 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
Lorena Police Department
The Lorena Police Department received $30,000 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
McLennan County Sheriff's Office
The McLennan 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
Since at least 2015, the McLennan County Sheriff's Office have been using body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Waco Tribune
McLennan Community College Police Department
The McLennan Community College 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
Woodway Public Safety Department
The Woodway Public Safety 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
Waco Police Department
The Waco Police Department deployed 250 Axon body-worn cameras in 2018.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): KWTXWaco Police Department
In 2010, the Waco Police Department purchased four automated license plate readers for $65,000.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Waco Tribune
Hewitt Police Department
The Hewitt Police Department operates one drone as of 2018, 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.kwtx.com
Woodway Police Department
The Woodway Police Department scanned 343,782 license plates in 2019 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