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Aerial mapping

Overhead imagery

Last reviewed: 2026-10-27Legal review: unverifiedCapability or investigative question
Evidence rule

This page is public-interest research. An argument grade is not a court finding. A watchdog page describes the device. It is not proof a Nevada agency bought it or turned a feature on. A product description is not a Nevada practice. Agencies are not merged: the City of Las Vegas Department of Public Safety, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Clark County School District, the City of Reno, and the Nevada Department of Public Safety stay separate. A hotlist hit is not a confirmed crime. Legal review of this page is unverified.

What it does

Aerial mapping photographs the ground from an airplane or a drone to make a map or a 3-D model. Planning departments use it. A police use would be a search of that imagery for a vehicle or a structure. The mapping flight and the later search are different steps.

Privacy watchdog concerns

No watchdog page is attached.

Constitutional issues

Unresolved question

Fourth Amendment

Warrant practice not established for a Nevada agency

Aerial mapping: No Nevada police use of an aerial map is documented. Ciraolo does not decide a searchable photo map. No violation is claimed.

  • California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207 (1986). Counterauthority. United States Supreme Court. Naked-eye aerial observation was not a search on Ciraolo’s facts. A stored map that can be searched later is a different record.

Statutes attached to read, not findings.

  • NRS Chapter 239. Nevada public-records law is the route to ask for contracts, policies, and logs. Citing it is not a finding that a surveillance practice is unlawful.
  • Nevada Constitution art. 1, § 18. State search-and-seizure provision. This page does not quote the section. No section anchor was verified. It is listed only where a search question is actually implicated.
  • 42 U.S.C. § 1983. A civil remedy for a deprivation of federal rights under color of state law. It is not a warrant statute, and it does not itself make a surveillance practice unlawful.

Nevada use

Not documented on this page.

Capability only.

See also: Satellite imagery; Drones

Next record

Aerial mapping: Do not treat a planning department’s map as a police surveillance program.

All devices. A document workflow for this page is not built. The arrest correction form is not a surveillance-document inbox. Corrections and source documents for this page follow the corrections policy. Corrections policy.