Surveillance Technology Description
Body-worn camera: A body-worn camera collects audio and video footage of RPD officers’ official police duties. RPD officers are required to record all activities and interactions while they are performing police duties, unless it is not safe or practical to do so. A civilian can request that an interaction be recorded if recording is not underway already, unless otherwise prohibited.
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Blue light camera: There are 157 surveillance cameras located around the City of Rochester in public places like intersections and outside of buildings. The cameras have a distinctive blue light, so the RPD refers to them as blue light cameras. Since 2008, the RPD has used blue light cameras in locations chosen “based on developed crime data.” The RPD also uses mobile trailer cameras for surveillance of special events and specific community complaints.
Police drone camera (unmanned aerial vehicles): The RPD uses drones for activities like narcotics investigations, protest overwatch, ATV details, river gorge searches, outside agency assistance, and special events. In 2025, the RPD tested a program called “Drones as Frist Responders,” which would provide “real-time video feeds of crime scenes, vehicle accidents, field intelligence, officer safety data, suspect movement, and industrial incidents, even before officers arrive on the scene.”
KingFish Cellular Transceiver: A KingFish cellular transceiver, similar to stingray device, is a surveillance device that can track and intercept mobile phone communications. The device is located in a police vehicles and allows “authorities to spy on cell phones in the area by mimicking a cell tower and allow the police to pinpoint a person’s location.” In 2016, the New York Civil Liberties Union shared information about the RPD’s use of this technology. Even when an agency possesses a warrant to collect information with a KingFish transceiver, it will inevitably collect information from mobile phones belonging to others in the vicinity. According to the RPD’s liaison to the PAB, they no longer use this technology.
Ring Neighbors App: A Ring camera is a home security camera that provides real-time video of a property. Ring Neighbors is “a smartphone app that acts as a digital neighborhood watch that both law enforcement and the public may access free of charge. It allows users to share and comment on real time crime and safety events.” The RPD can access information users provide to the app.
