Public records desk

Flock Cameras in the United States

Community-reported camera locations, contracts Alto can link to a document, and live news — each figure carrying its source and the date it was collected. There is no official public map of every Flock camera, and this is not one.

Ask Gab AI about Flock Safety cameras
Community-reported OpenStreetMap data · not an official Flock map · no plate lookupDetails

Alto is not affiliated with Flock Safety. Location pins come from © OpenStreetMap contributors. Community tagging of ALPR devices is documented by projects such as DeFlock. Pins are reported locations, not proof a camera is on or that a city has a current contract. There is no official public map. Alto does not search license plates. Vendor claims belong to flocksafety.com. Wrong figures: corrections.

What Alto counted

Imported and counted here, from public data. These are Alto's own figures.

Reported Flock-tagged OSM nodes

110,613 locations

OpenStreetMap · as of 2026-08-24

50 states + DC with at least one Flock-tagged node. 134,992 ALPR nodes of any vendor.

Atlas rows mentioning Flock

1 agency rows

Atlas of Surveillance (EFF) · as of 2026-08-24

Every state

Each state has a page whether or not anyone has mapped a device there. Shading is reported Flock-tagged nodes; a blank tile means none were reported in the last import, which is not the same as no cameras.

Most reported locations
StateFlock-taggedPer 100k residents
California16,21841.2
Texas14,99547.3
Georgia8,66176.6
Florida7,29031.1
Ohio6,03950.7
Illinois5,42042.6
Indiana3,31047.5
North Carolina3,26029.1
Virginia3,11835.1
Tennessee3,07342.0

Rate uses U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 estimates (NST-EST2025) as of 2025-07-01. The numerator is OpenStreetMap, not Census.

What Flock and the press report

Cited figures from the vendor and from newsrooms. These are not Alto measurements and are never added into the counts above.

Cameras (vendor / press)
more than 120,000

Stateline, citing Flock · 2026-08-14

Flock’s own figure as reported by Stateline. Not counted from OpenStreetMap.

States with deployments (press)
49

Stateline, citing Flock · 2026-08-14

Cancellations / suspensions / rejections in 2026 (press)
more than 50 agencies or communities

Stateline, citing DeFlock · 2026-08-14

DeFlock’s tally as reported by Stateline — not Alto’s tracker count.

How a number gets on this page

Four steps, and a rule at each one.

  1. Public sources

    OpenStreetMap nodes tagged as plate readers, the EFF Atlas of Surveillance CSV, USAspending.gov, agency transparency pages, and posted contract PDFs.

  2. Nightly import

    A scheduled job pulls each source and stores a dated snapshot. Requests from your browser never hit those upstream APIs.

  3. Classify

    A node counts as Flock only when its manufacturer, brand, or wikidata tag names Flock Safety. Other vendors stay in a separate ALPR total and are never merged in.

  4. Publish with provenance

    Every figure renders with its source and an as-of date. If a fetch fails, the last good snapshot stands or the figure is omitted — never a stale number shown as live.

Read the full methodology

Flock-tagged counts are OpenStreetMap nodes with surveillance:type=ALPR and a Flock manufacturer, brand, or wikidata tag. Import time is shown on each figure. Atlas rows appear only after an EFF CSV import. Press figures are labelled as press and never mixed into OSM totals. Per-100,000 figures use Census Bureau U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 estimates (NST-EST2025) as of 2025-07-01. To correct a pin, edit it on OpenStreetMap — Alto reimports on a schedule.

The rest of the desk

Flock Safety sells automated license plate readers and related public-safety software to police, HOAs, businesses, and others. There is no official public map of every camera. Alto’s Flock desk puts reported OpenStreetMap locations next to news and documents that are already public — and labels every number with a source and a date.

A pin on the map is a community-reported pole, not proof that a camera is recording or that a city currently has a contract. Counts from Flock or the press are shown separately from counts Alto imports from OpenStreetMap. Alto is not affiliated with Flock Safety.

What this desk measures

OpenStreetMap contributors tag visible ALPR devices. Alto imports those nodes, counts the subset tagged as Flock Safety, and shows the import time. Agency lists come from the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Atlas of Surveillance when that file has been imported. Contracts and tracker items are only rows we can link to a document or named news report.

What this desk does not do

Alto does not log into Flock’s product, does not search license plates, and does not publish travel histories. It does not claim a complete inventory. If a figure cannot be sourced, the cell is blank.

Flock Cameras — Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Flock camera?
A Flock camera is an automated license plate reader (ALPR) made by Flock Safety. In the common roadside form it photographs passing vehicles and software extracts the plate and vehicle characteristics Flock describes on its public product pages. Police departments, sheriffs, HOAs, businesses, and schools are among the customers Flock markets to.
Is there an official public map of Flock cameras?
No. Flock Safety does not publish a complete official map of camera locations. Community projects tag visible ALPR poles on OpenStreetMap. Alto plots those reported locations and labels them as incomplete and unofficial.
Where do Alto’s Flock locations come from?
Reported coordinates come from OpenStreetMap nodes tagged man_made=surveillance and surveillance:type=ALPR. A pin is counted as Flock only when manufacturer, brand, or manufacturer:wikidata identifies Flock Safety. Alto does not survey poles itself.
Does a pin mean the camera is on and the city has a contract?
No. A pin is a community-reported location. The camera may have been moved or removed. A contract is a separate public record. Alto does not treat a pin as proof that a device is recording or that a jurisdiction currently pays Flock.
What do the cameras record?
Flock’s public product copy describes still images of vehicles and software that reads plates and vehicle characteristics such as make, color, and body type. Retention and sharing are set by the customer, not by Alto. Read the agency’s contract or transparency page for that jurisdiction.
How long is the data kept?
Retention is customer-controlled. Flock has publicly discussed changing recommended defaults (including a shorter default in 2026). Alto does not invent a single nationwide number. When a contract or portal states a retention period, that figure is shown with the document date.
Can I search my own license plate on Alto?
No. Alto does not collect, store, or search license plates. Some governments release redacted Flock audit logs through public records. Third-party sites such as haveibeenflocked.com aggregate those logs; they are incomplete and are not Flock’s live database. Alto does not operate a plate lookup.
How do I request my city’s Flock contract?
Most Flock deals with police are local public records. Ask the city clerk or police records unit for the Flock Safety or Flock Group agreement, order form, and any data-sharing addendum. Federal awards, if any, also appear on USAspending.gov.
Is Alto affiliated with Flock Safety?
No. Alto is operated by Gab AI Inc. This desk cites Flock’s public statements, government documents, OpenStreetMap, and news. It is not a Flock product and not an activist clone of any mapping project.