What They Said
When We Asked
51 agencies answered “we operate none of it”
This Is Not A Map
Of Safe Places
Every agency below told us, in writing, that it does not own, operate or have access to the surveillance technology we asked about. That is a claim about the agency. It is not a claim about the ground you are standing on.
Most of these are small towns with no police force of their own. They are patrolled by a county sheriff, and the sheriff is very often the one running the cameras. A town can truthfully operate nothing while every road into it is read by a plate reader.
Of the 51 agencies that said they operate none of it, 47 sit inside a county where we have already confirmed a surveillance vendor.
That is the finding. Not that there are clean places, but that saying no barely changes what happens where you live.
Agencies that only told us another office holds the records are not listed here. Pointing at a different office is not a claim that the technology is absent. Nor is any agency whose answer is already contradicted by independent research; those appear on their county’s page instead.
We publish these answers because they are worth something on their own terms. An agency that puts “we have none of this” in writing has made a record. If a camera appears later, that record is the first question someone gets to ask.
Who Said No
Sorted by county. The right-hand column is the status of the county they sit in, not of the agency itself.
| Agency | County | Who polices it | County status |
|---|
Answers received August 2026 in response to Chapter 119 public records requests. An agency’s answer is recorded as given; where independent research contradicts one, we say so on that county’s page rather than here.
Who Withheld,
And On What Ground
Two agencies withheld records and named a statute. Eleven more declined to answer the written inventory at all. These are different things and are kept apart.
Records withheld under a claimed exemption
An exemption claim is the most useful refusal there is. The agency has committed to a statute, in writing, and a statute can be argued with.
Declined to answer the written inventory
Part Two asked nine yes-or-no questions and named the vendor where the answer is yes. These agencies replied that Chapter 119 does not oblige them to answer questions. As a statement of law that is broadly right. Chapter 119 compels production of records that exist, not the creation of new ones. It is worth showing how many reach for it, and worth noting that dozens of other agencies simply answered.
Quoted verbatim from each agency’s reply. Where an agency redacted part of a production under an exemption, a social security number for instance, that is lawful practice and is not listed here.