Clovis Police use surveillance car to pursue charges for student ICE protest
Clovis Unified students who walked out of campuses Tuesday to protest ICE noticed a peculiar police car encircle them as they marched to Shaw Avenue. The vehicle looked like any other marked Clovis police patrol vehicle, except for the cameras affixed to its roof.
The police department used the vehicle — known as the Camera-On-Wheels car, or COW for short — and city network of approximately 500 cameras to monitor the walkout in real time and record the event.
The COW car has two remotely operable surveillance cameras affixed to its roof that allow the vehicle to video record a 360-degree view of its surroundings.
The police department unveiled the COW car last October at a Clovis City Council meeting, The Bee reported, and touted the vehicle as a budget-friendly surveillance tool. The department said it planned to deploy the vehicle at high-traffic events — such as ClovisFest — or areas with inadequate security to document the surroundings.
The police department retrofitted a retired police vehicle with surveillance cameras, solar panels and cooling fans.
Clovis Police spokesperson Ty Wood said in an interview last October that the idea was inspired by several police departments, and it’s both cost-effective and convenient. The car was a patrol vehicle from a retired fleet that had high mileage, he said. With the solar charging panels and remotely controlled cameras mounted on top, all the officer needs to do is, “Start up the car, start driving it, and park it,” Wood said.
The vehicle’s cameras automatically generates reports and stores the footage in the department’s Cloud service, Wood said. Any officer, no matter in the department or using one of the mobile applications, can remotely operate the camera — such as zooming in and out — and turn it 360 degrees.
The total estimated cost of outfitting the vehicle into COW was $29,500, according to the department.
Clovis Police said officers observed multiple adults actively encouraging, organizing, and facilitating students leaving school without authorization during the protest, according to the Wednesday statement. The department has identified two adults, and is working to identify the others involved, the police said.
Wood told The Bee on Wednesday evening that the department plans to use the recordings captured by COW to file charges.
“Right now, we’re working to identify all the adults that officers saw. Once they have that, they’re going to use the recordings from our surveillance cameras, mainly our COW car,” Wood said. “They’ll be using that video footage along with other information that they may get to file charges for that.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 2:28 PM.
