Surveillance Map
Flock Safety license plate cameras log every passing car and make the record searchable by police across the country. Volunteers have mapped 116,548 of them, along with 28,667 other plate readers and 4,023 gunshot detectors. Find the ones near you.
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Mapped devices by state
| State | Flock cameras | Other plate readers | Gunshot detectors |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 4,386 | 442 | |
| Texas | 1,507 | 232 | |
| Georgia | 883 | 387 | |
| Florida | 2,390 | 135 | |
| Ohio | 669 | 113 | |
| Illinois | 1,738 | 342 | |
| Indiana | 403 | 90 | |
| North Carolina | 536 | 52 | |
| Tennessee | 487 | 134 | |
| Virginia | 327 | 478 | |
| Michigan | 657 | 80 | |
| Alabama | 465 | 104 | |
| Missouri | 961 | 39 | |
| Colorado | 446 | 103 | |
| Arizona | 497 | 113 | |
| New York | 2,653 | 227 | |
| Washington | 320 | 38 | |
| South Carolina | 199 | 36 | |
| Kentucky | 56 | 32 | |
| Wisconsin | 266 | 87 | |
| Louisiana | 500 | 151 | |
| Minnesota | 233 | 14 | |
| Pennsylvania | 2,571 | 87 | |
| Kansas | 747 | 78 | |
| Oklahoma | 296 | 17 | |
| New Jersey | 1,222 | 52 | |
| Mississippi | 174 | 16 | |
| Arkansas | 122 | 16 | |
| Massachusetts | 238 | 62 | |
| Iowa | 59 | 4 | |
| Utah | 260 | 9 | |
| Nevada | 233 | 45 | |
| Maryland | 273 | 16 | |
| New Mexico | 333 | 69 | |
| Connecticut | 389 | 56 | |
| Nebraska | 235 | 8 | |
| Delaware | 109 | 4 | |
| Oregon | 188 | 7 | |
| Idaho | 133 | 3 | |
| Rhode Island | 29 | 3 | |
| South Dakota | 29 | 1 | |
| West Virginia | 47 | 3 | |
| Puerto Rico | 123 | 4 | |
| North Dakota | 30 | 2 | |
| District of Columbia | 21 | 6 | |
| Montana | 17 | 8 | |
| Wyoming | 6 | 0 | |
| Hawaii | 36 | 2 | |
| United States Virgin Islands | 24 | 3 | |
| Maine | 60 | 3 | |
| Alaska | 6 | 0 | |
| New Hampshire | 60 | 8 | |
| Vermont | 18 | 2 |
What the cameras collect
Each camera photographs every vehicle that passes, reads the plate, and stores it with the time and place. Searches are not limited to the town that bought the camera: agencies that share data can look up a car across other departments’ networks, which turns ordinary driving into a searchable travel history.
A letter from Senator Josh Hawley in August put Flock’s network at more than 120,000 cameras in 49 states, producing more than 20 billion vehicle scans a month. In October the Justice Department told a federal appeals court that the data has no Fourth Amendment protection.
Gunshot detectors
These are microphones mounted on poles and rooftops that listen around the clock for sounds like gunfire and send the clips to be reviewed. About two-thirds of the mapped units are Flock’s Raven; most of the rest have no maker recorded, and SoundThinking’s ShotSpotter is the other main brand. Unlike a camera, a detector gives no visible sign of what it is recording.
Who runs them
Only 14% of mapped Flock cameras have an operator recorded. These are the largest recorded operators of license plate readers. Private businesses run cameras too, and can choose to share them with police.
- Flock Safety2,129
- Lowe's1,690
- The Home Depot1,133
- NYC Department of Transportation604
- San Diego Police Department591
- Detroit Police Department450
- San Francisco Police Department412
- California Highway Patrol (CHP)401
- Chicago Police Department227
- New York City Police Department213
Other plate reader makers
- Motorola Solutions7,806
- Genetec3,751
- Axis Communications2,346
- Leonardo1,317
- Rekor876
- Axon Enterprise764
- PlateSmart/CyclopsTchnlgs757
- Neology, Inc.594
What police agencies use
Beyond what volunteers can see from the street, EFF’s Atlas of Surveillance has documented the technology 9,505 US law enforcement agencies use. Search a ZIP code above to see the agencies near you.
- 5,462 agencies with body-worn cameras
- 4,081 agencies with license plate readers
- 1,828 agencies with drones
- 1,039 agencies with investigative data platforms
- 963 agencies with face recognition
- 755 agencies with camera registry
- 248 agencies with gunshot detection
- 242 agencies with real-time crime centers
- 200 agencies with predictive policing
- 85 agencies with video analytics
- 83 agencies with cell-site simulators (stingrays)
Bills that would rein them in
- Ban Flock Act
Would bar federal agencies from using automatic license plate readers or buying their data unless Congress authorizes a specific use, cut certain federal grants to states and cities that keep using them, and ban federal money for the systems.
- Flock-Off Act
Would cut off federal funding for automated license plate readers and biometric surveillance cameras, including contracts and data-sharing services connected to them.
- FLAFO Act (H.R.10606)
Would bar federal agencies from using networked license plate reader systems like Flock without a warrant, and tie Justice Department grants to states adopting the same rule.
- Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act
Would bar federal agencies from using automated license-plate readers, facial recognition, biometric identification, and other systems built for persistent or mass surveillance.
- Surveillance Accountability Act
Would require a probable-cause warrant for government access to third-party data and let people seek redress when federal officials violate their Fourth Amendment rights.
Our coverage
- House To Vote On Bill Blocking Federal Flock Data Access
- DOJ Says Flock Camera Data Is Not Protected By Fourth Amendment
- Federal Judge Calls License Plate Readers a Form of Mass Surveillance
- Florida and Texas Move Against Flock License Plate Readers
- Senate Probes Flock Safety Over 20 Billion Vehicle Scans
- Flock Camera Error Gets Innocent Driver Boxed in by Police
About the data
Camera and detector locations come from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, and many were added by volunteers using DeFlock. The map is refreshed from OpenStreetMap and shows where volunteers have looked, so some areas have more devices than appear here. Missing one, or found one that is gone? Report it on DeFlock.
The device files are available under the Open Database License: flock-cameras.json, alpr-other.json and gunshot-detectors.json. Agency data is from the Atlas of Surveillance by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, used under CC BY 4.0 and placed on the map by city or county. ZIP code, city and county locations are from the US Census Bureau. Street map by OpenFreeMap, © OpenMapTiles, loaded through this site so map providers never see who is looking where.