Kanawha County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Kanawha 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
Charleston Police Department
The Charleston Police Department has a drone unit.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Charleston Police Department Facebook
The Charleston Police Department uses Motorola V300 body-worn cameras. In 2021, the agency received a grant to purchase an additional 90 body-worn cameras. The agency has a total of 180 body-worn cameras as of 2021.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): WSAZWOWK 13 News
Kanawha County Sheriff's Office
The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office uses Axon body-worn cameras. The agency purchased the body-worn cameras as part of a $3-million package in 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): WSAZWCHSKanawha County Sheriff's Office's Facebook page
The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office purchased a DJI Mavic 2 in 2021.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Kanawha County CommissionCenter for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegewww.faa.gov
West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles
The West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles shares images with law enforcement agencies and government agencies who sign a confidentiality agreement.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Electronic Frontier Foundation
West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Section
The U.S. Department of Justice awarded $60,459 to the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Section in 2018 as part of the Bureau of Justice Assistance's body-worn camera grant program.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): U.S Department of Justice
West Virginia State Police
The West Virginia State Police began using automated license plate readers in 2011. The statewide program involves dozens of local agencies throughout the state.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): West Virginia State PoliceCharleston Gazette-MailPolice1
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026