Flock & ALPR cameras in California
Public map data records ALPR cameras across all six of the largest California metros as of 2 August 2026, led by Los Angeles with 2,746 and San Francisco close behind at 2,708. See every camera, which way it faces and its approximate capture zone, free and without an account.
California is where the assumption that "ALPR means Flock" breaks down hardest. San Diego's mapped network is led by Ubicquia, not Flock. Los Angeles holds the largest Motorola Solutions fleet we find anywhere, 385 cameras. San Jose records twelve different manufacturers. If you are trying to reason about plate readers by vendor, this is the state that will mislead you.
Open the live camera mapWhich California cities have Flock cameras?
Every major California metro has mapped ALPR cameras. These are counts of cameras recorded in public map data, read on 2 August 2026.
2,746 cameras
San Francisco
2,708 cameras
1,662 cameras
1,179 cameras
Sacramento
1,036 cameras
Fresno
282 cameras
Los Angeles, San Jose and San Diego have full pages with operator, vendor and direction breakdowns; San Francisco, Sacramento and Fresno are covered by the live map. Metro areas are read as bounding boxes around each city centre, and the San Francisco and San Jose boxes adjoin across the Bay Area — do not add these figures for a state total. Counts are a floor, not a full inventory.
The largest ALPR operator in each California metro
California's big-city forces run a strikingly small share of their own metros — the opposite of the Texas pattern.
San Diego Police Department
682 cameras
San Jose Police Department
528 cameras
San Francisco Police Department
431 cameras
Los Angeles Police Department
255 cameras
Sacramento Police Department
197 cameras
Fresno Police Department
137 cameras
Los Angeles is the clearest example. LAPD's 255 cameras account for just 9% of the 2,746 mapped across its metro, spread among 114 separate operators — the most fragmented ALPR landscape we find anywhere. Compare that with Houston, where one department runs half the metro. Crossing a municipal boundary in Los Angeles County means crossing into a different agency's retention and sharing policy.
Operator attribution comes from OpenStreetMap tagging where recorded, and otherwise from the convention that a camera inside a jurisdiction is run by that jurisdiction — a strong signal, not a confirmed record. Private operators including The Home Depot and Lowe's appear in several California metros.
California ALPR questions
What cities in California have Flock cameras?
Public map data records ALPR cameras in all six of the largest California metros as of 2 August 2026: Los Angeles (2,746), San Francisco (2,708), San Jose (1,662), San Diego (1,179), Sacramento (1,036) and Fresno (282). Many smaller California cities appear on the live map as well — these are simply the six largest metro areas.
Are all the plate readers in California made by Flock?
No, and California is the clearest counter-example in the country. San Diego's mapped network is led by Ubicquia with 596 cameras against Flock's 465. Los Angeles records 385 tagged Motorola Solutions, the largest non-Flock fleet we find in any metro. San Jose records twelve different manufacturers, including CoStar, Verkada, Bosch and Jenoptik.
Who operates ALPR cameras in California?
Mostly municipal police departments, but far more of them than in other states — Los Angeles alone has 114 separate operators on the map. County sheriffs, the California Highway Patrol, university forces including Stanford, Customs and Border Protection near the San Diego border, and retailers such as The Home Depot all appear.
Can I avoid Flock cameras when driving in California?
BanditKin's navigation offers opt-in, field-of-view-aware camera avoidance with a strength slider. If no camera-free route exists it tells you and falls back to the normal route. Preferring not to be logged by a commercial surveillance network on public roads is a privacy preference — the app uses public camera-location data.