Flock & ALPR cameras in California
Public map data records 20,917 ALPR cameras inside California's borders as of 3 September 2026, run by 555 different operators. Anaheim leads the state's metros with 3,676. See every camera, which way it faces and its approximate capture zone — free, no account.
The 20,917 cameras mapped in California belong to 555 operators, with San Diego Police Department at the top on 681. That makes the state widely spread by ALPR standards. Because these are counted inside the border rather than by metro box, the number is directly comparable with other states on this site. 4,234 of the 20,917 cameras carry no operator at all, so the operator shares above are shares of the attributed cameras.
Open the live camera mapWhich California cities have Flock cameras?
What the public map records around each California metro on 3 September 2026.
Anaheim
3,676 cameras
Oakland
3,255 cameras
3,153 cameras
2,876 cameras
2,414 cameras
1,779 cameras
1,307 cameras
1,177 cameras
Bakersfield
327 cameras
305 cameras
Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento, Riverside and Fresno have full pages with operator, vendor and direction breakdowns; the other metros are covered by the live map. Bounding-box counts around each city centre — good for ranking metros, wrong for summing. The only clean state total is the polygon-counted figure in the headline.
The largest ALPR operators in California
California's largest ALPR operators, counted inside the state line.
San Diego Police Department
681 cameras
San Jose Police Department
528 cameras
California Highway Patrol
476 cameras
Riverside County Sheriff's Office
375 cameras
San Francisco Police Department
334 cameras
Los Angeles Police Department
283 cameras
The Home Depot
209 cameras
Sacramento Police Department
199 cameras
There is a clear leader — San Diego Police Department, 681 cameras — and then a long, flat tail of 554 other operators. Retail and private operators show up in the top twelve (The Home Depot, Lowe's), which is worth knowing: those cameras are not run by any police agency.
Names are drawn from OpenStreetMap tags, falling back to the jurisdiction the camera sits in (12,546 of 20,917 here). A camera's operator is not always the body that paid for it.
It isn't all Flock in California
Which companies built the readers, and how many can be avoided by direction.
Flock Safety
16,012 cameras
Motorola Solutions
1,652 cameras
Ubicquia
596 cameras
Axis Communications
147 cameras
Genetec
105 cameras
Of the 18,750 cameras in California with a recorded manufacturer, 16,012 are tagged Flock Safety (85%); Motorola Solutions is the largest alternative at 1,652. 1,976 cameras carry no manufacturer tag at all.
Where a mount is recorded, California's cameras sit on: pole (4,837), street lamp (1,155), post (45), wall (18). 18,591 of the 20,917 cameras have a recorded facing direction, which is what makes route avoidance possible — a camera with no bearing shows on the map but can't be avoided with any precision.
Documented ALPR programs in California
323 California agencies appear in the EFF Atlas of Surveillance as ALPR users. That is a records count; the 555 operators on the map are a physical count. Both are floors.
Alameda County Sheriff's Office — Alameda County
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office collected more than 22,000,000 vehicle scans in 2022 using automated license plate readers. Vendor: Motorola Solutions.
Alameda Police Department — Alameda County
As of April 2024, the Alameda Police Department operates 33 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Alhambra Police Department — Los Angeles County
The Alhambra Police Department operates automated license plate readers and accesses external ALPR data. The agency contracts with Neology/PIPS. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Anaheim Police Department — Orange County
The Anaheim Police Department operates automated license plate readers. Vendor: Vigilant Solutions, Flock Safety.
Antioch Police Department — Contra Costa County
The Antioch Police Department collected more than 20,000,000 vehicle scans in 2022 using automated license plate readers. Vendor: Motorola Solutions.
Arcadia Police Department — Los Angeles County
The Arcadia Police Department uses Flock Safety automated license plate readers. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Atlas of Surveillance. Summaries are the Atlas's own wording, trimmed to a complete sentence.
California ALPR questions
How many Flock cameras are there in California?
20,917 mapped cameras inside the state line as of 3 September 2026. That is a true in-state count, not a sum of overlapping city areas — and still a floor, because unmapped cameras don't appear.
Which cities in California have Flock cameras?
The largest clusters are around Anaheim (3,676), Oakland (3,255), Los Angeles (3,153), San Francisco (2,876), Riverside (2,414), San Jose (1,779). Smaller CA towns appear on the live map too — these are simply the biggest metro areas.
Who operates ALPR cameras in California?
Mostly municipal police and county sheriffs — 555 separate operators, led by San Diego Police Department (681). Private operators account for 154 of the cameras that carry an operator type.
Are all the plate readers in California made by Flock?
No. Flock Safety is tagged on 16,012 of 18,750 vendor-recorded cameras (85%); Motorola Solutions accounts for 1,652, and 1,976 cameras have no vendor recorded at all. 'Flock camera' is the common name, but the map covers every ALPR it can find.
Can I avoid Flock cameras when driving in California?
BanditKin's opt-in avoidance uses each camera's approximate capture zone, so it works best where bearings are recorded (89% of California's cameras). When a clean route isn't possible it falls back to the normal one rather than pretending. It is a privacy preference built on public data, not a way to evade law enforcement.