Thurston County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Thurston 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
Yelm Police Department
The Yelm Police Department initially installed four Flock Safety automated license plate readers at a cost of $3,500 per camera. The agency plans to purchase four additional ALPRs as of March 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Nisqually Valley NewsSumner, WA
Olympia Police Department
The Olympia Police Department announced plans to installing 16 Flock Safety automated license plate readers in 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): JOLT
The Olympia Police Department entered into a $736,172 contact with Axon for body-worn cameras in the fall of 2022.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The Journal of Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater
The Olympia Police Department maintains a voluntary registry of private and personal surveillance cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): City of Olympia
Thurston County Sheriff's Office
The Thurston County Sheriff's Office operates one DJI Matrice 210 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.co.thurston.wa.uswww.ifiberonenewsradio.com
Washington State Patrol
The Washington State Patrol operates 100+ DJI drones 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 Collegewww.opb.org
The Washington State Patrol has used automated license plate readers since at least 2015.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Q13 Fox
Nisqually Police Department
The Nisqually Police Department uses Axon body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Nisqually Public Safety Complex Facebook page
Nisqually Tribal Police Department
The Nisqually Tribal Police Department had two drones as of 2017.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Nisqually Tribal News
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026