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Drones are one piece of a much larger picture. Under Detroit's 2021 oversight ordinance, every city department must file a public report for each surveillance technology it uses. We compiled those filings and contracts into one list — 20 technologies across the city, with the departments and vendors behind them.
Source: the city's CIOGS filings ↗Cameras & video
8Fixed and mobile cameras feeding the police Real-Time Crime Center and other departments.
Project Green Light / Real-Time Crime Center
850+ camera locations livestreaming to police.
Freeway cameras & plate readers
“Dumping” cameras
Street-view cameras
Bus camera system
Park lighting & cameras
Surveillance van
Recreation facility security
Drones & aerial
5Unmanned aerial systems across several departments — the subject of the current debate.
Skydio Unmanned Aerial System (X2E)
Obtained via the Fire Dept's grant; 30-day retention, no immigration use.
Drones
Tethered drone
UAV technology
Drones
License plates & vehicles
3Automated readers that log where vehicles travel.
License-plate readers (freeways)
$6.25M contract through June 2029; 262 of Detroit's ~566 readers.
License-plate readers (intersections)
$5M expansion, approved 7–2.
Traffic-safety data analytics (MODES)
Audio — gunshot detection
1Microphones that flag suspected gunfire.
ShotSpotter / SoundThinking
$7M; contract expires June 30, 2026. A court found the 2022 approval violated CIOGS.
Facial recognition
1Software that matches faces to photo databases.
DataWorks Plus facial recognition
Linked to three wrongful arrests; limited by a 2024 settlement.
Other surveillance & data
2Tools that don't fit neatly elsewhere but still collect or analyze information.
Mobile cellular investigation
Digital radiography
From the drone rulebook (Directive 303.6, 2018)
- 01It instructs officers to “avoid” the word “drone” and attach no “military connotation” when referring to the aircraft.
- 02It requires a search warrant before a flight that would be a Fourth-Amendment search — with an exception for “exigent circumstances,” a term the policy doesn't define.
- 03It sets no fixed retention period itself, deferring to other directives; the 2024 Skydio report adds a 30-day default for inadvertently collected video.
Compiled from the city's public CIOGS filings and contract reporting. Some entries don't name a vendor in the public listing. Want the underlying documents? Request them here.
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