California
Monterey County
On record
Checked 21 Aug 2026- Technologies
- 2
- Systems
- 2
- Devices mapped
- 393
Monterey County, California. Device data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), with community reporting via DeFlock. Open the full map →
What this county shows is how fast a small city can build, and how little of that has to be written down along the way.
Greenfield has about 19,000 people. In December 2024 its council approved a resolution titled “Approving the Purchase a Drone” on a staff report from the chief; the minutes record two comments from the public, a discussion of maintenance and size, and a unanimous vote. Two weeks later the city paid a drone-as-first-responder vendor $38,500 from a state law enforcement fund. By May 2025 the programme was flying, reported as the first of its kind in the county.
In March 2025 the same council authorised an agreement with the County to put plate reader cameras on county land. The staff report describes covering the entry and exit points of the city and capturing data on vehicles and individuals moving in and out of it. Because the money came from an existing camera budget, the item arrived as an agreement to sign rather than a sum to approve.
Two pages cover Greenfield. Both rest on the city’s own agenda packets, and both stop where the packets do: neither system has a published policy we could find, and the agreement assigns responsibility for a data retention schedule without setting one.
The county government itself is missing from this research. Its website refused our requests, which means we have read one side of an agreement whose other party is the County, and the Sheriff’s Office record is untouched. Salinas, the county’s largest city, has not been examined at all.
What's in use here
Approved as a resolution titled "Approving the Purchase a Drone". The minutes record a staff report, two comments from the public, a discussion of maintenance and size, and a unanimous vote. No vendor, no cost, no policy.
The city's own staff report describes cameras at the entry and exit points of town, capturing data on vehicles and individuals moving in and out of it. The agreement assigns responsibility for a retention schedule without setting one.
Who runs it
The agency is the accountability unit: who voted, whose policy applies, and who answers a records request.
| Agency | Jurisdiction | Systems |
|---|---|---|
| Greenfield Police Department | City of Greenfield | 2 |
| 1 agency on record. A jointly run system counts against each of its operators, so this column is not a county total. | ||
Trackers
Meetings, contracts, records
Nothing listed yet. The trackers launch here, and facts appear only with their sources.
How the inventory works →What you can do
Civic action
Show up
Public comment is open to any resident, and you do not have to be an expert to use it. We have not yet confirmed where the bodies that decide for Monterey County meet. How the inventory works explains what we check and how to check it yourself.
How the inventory works →Personal protection
Protect yourself
Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.
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