Benton County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Benton 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
Kennewick Police Department
The Kennewick Police Department uses Flock Safety automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Urbanist
The Kennewick Police Department signed a multi-year contract with Axon to get body-worn cameras, dash cameras, and Tasers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Tri-City Herald
West Richland Police Department
The West Richland Police Department uses Flock Safety automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Urbanist
Prosser Police Department
The Prosser Police Department uses Flock Safety automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of Prosser
Benton County Sheriff's Office
The Benton County Sheriff's Office uses Flock Safety automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Sumner, WA
The Benton Sheriff's Office signed a multi-year contract with Axon for body-worn cameras, dash cams, and Tasers using Public Safety Sales Tax funds.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Tri-City Herald
Richland Police Department
As of April 2024, the Richland Police Department operates 10 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 Richland Police Department began using Axon body-worn cameras in early 2022.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Tri-City Herald
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026