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
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office operates 10 Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office uses body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Jefferson County Sheriff's Office's Facebook PageWisconsin Department of Justice
Watertown Police Department
The Watertown Police Department operates one Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Watertown Police Department acquired 36 Axon body-worn cameras in 2019.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Watertown Daily TimesWisconsin Department of Justice
Lake Mills Police Department
All officers in the Lake Mills Police Department wear body-worn cameras, according to a 2020 Wisconsin Department of Justice survey. The Lake Mills Police Department also received a Small, Rural, and Tribal Body-Worn Camera Program grant for $12,725 for 11 body-worn cameras in 2023.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Wisconsin Department of JusticeJustice & Security StrategiesJustice & Security Strategies
The Lake Mills Police Department scanned 130,923 license plates in 2019 using Vigilant Solutions automated license plate readers.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): MuckRock
Jefferson Police Department
All officers in the Jefferson Police Department wear body-worn cameras, according to a 2020 Wisconsin Department of Justice survey.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Wisconsin Department of Justice
Fort Atkinson Police Department
All officers in the Fort Atkinson Police Department wear body-worn cameras, according to a 2020 Wisconsin Department of Justice survey.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Wisconsin Department of Justice
Palmyra Police Department
All officers in the Palmyra Police Department wear body-worn cameras, according to a 2020 Wisconsin Department of Justice survey.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Wisconsin Department of Justice
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026