Flock & ALPR cameras in Massachusetts
Public map data records 1,237 ALPR cameras inside Massachusetts's borders as of 3 September 2026, run by 115 different operators. Cambridge leads the state's metros with 717. See every camera, which way it faces and its approximate capture zone — free, no account.
Massachusetts records 1,237 mapped plate readers across 115 operators. Worcester County Sheriff's Office runs the largest share at 4%, ahead of Norfolk County Sheriff's Office on 52. Every count on this page is measured inside the state line, so it's a floor for the state — not an estimate stitched together from overlapping city boxes. 227 of the 1,237 cameras carry no operator at all, so the operator shares above are shares of the attributed cameras.
Open the live camera mapWhich Massachusetts cities have Flock cameras?
How the 1,237 in-state cameras cluster: counts around each major MA city as of 3 September 2026.
Boston has a full page with operator, vendor and direction breakdowns; the other metros are covered by the live map. These are bounding-box reads around each city, useful for comparing metros but not for adding together — boxes overlap and spill across state lines. The headline figure is counted inside the border and is the honest state total.
The largest ALPR operators in Massachusetts
Massachusetts's largest ALPR operators, counted inside the state line.
Worcester County Sheriff's Office
54 cameras
Norfolk County Sheriff's Office
52 cameras
Bristol County Sheriff's Office
47 cameras
Middlesex County Sheriff's Office
42 cameras
Plymouth County Sheriff's Office
41 cameras
Springfield Police Department
37 cameras
Lowell Police
35 cameras
Methuen Police
31 cameras
The top of the Massachusetts table is Worcester County Sheriff's Office at 54. What matters for anyone reading the map is how long the tail is — 115 operators in total, so most cameras belong to agencies that individually run only a handful. Private businesses appear too: of the cameras with a recorded operator type, 20 are privately operated.
Names are drawn from OpenStreetMap tags, falling back to the jurisdiction the camera sits in (651 of 1,237 here). A camera's operator is not always the body that paid for it.
It isn't all Flock in Massachusetts
The vendor mix behind the state's plate readers.
Flock Safety
1,012 cameras
Motorola Solutions
25 cameras
Neology
18 cameras
Genetec
12 cameras
Axis Communications
7 cameras
'Flock camera' is shorthand here, not the whole story: 93% of vendor-tagged cameras in Massachusetts are Flock Safety, and Motorola Solutions accounts for 25. 147 cameras are unattributed to any vendor.
The map knows which way 89% of Massachusetts's cameras face (1,103 of 1,237). Mounts, where recorded: pole (303), street lamp (34), wall (30), post (6).
Documented ALPR programs in Massachusetts
Records-based sources document 58 agencies running plate readers in Massachusetts, against 115 operators visible on the map. Where the Atlas has a documented program and the map has few cameras, the cameras are likely there and simply not yet mapped.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst Parking Services Enforcement — Hampshire County
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst began using automated license plate readers for parking enforcement in 2018.
Fitchburg Police Department — Worcester County
The Fitchburg Police Department acquired license plate readers which scan 30,000 plates per month as early as 2010. Vendor: ELSAG.
Somerville Police Department — Middlesex County
The Somerville Police Department has automated license plate readers in operation since 2015. Vendor: ELSAG.
Revere Police Department — Suffolk County
The Revere Police Department had one ELSAG system as of 2010 and acquired L3 automated license plate readers after receiving the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant in 2010. Vendor: ELSAG.
Ashland Police Department — Middlesex County
The Ashland Police Department acquired automated license plate readers in 2010. Vendor: ELSAG.
Malden Police Department — Middlesex County
The Malden Police Department acquired automated license plate readers in 2010. Vendor: ELSAG.
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Atlas of Surveillance. Summaries are the Atlas's own wording, trimmed to a complete sentence.
Massachusetts ALPR questions
How many Flock cameras are there in Massachusetts?
Public map data records 1,237 ALPR cameras inside Massachusetts as of 3 September 2026, counted against the state boundary rather than by metro box. 1,012 of the vendor-tagged ones are Flock Safety. Treat it as a floor: cameras appear as people map them, and rural areas are thinly covered.
Which cities in Massachusetts have Flock cameras?
The largest clusters are around Cambridge (717), Boston (693), Lowell (502), Springfield (279), Worcester (192). Smaller MA towns appear on the live map too — these are simply the biggest metro areas.
Who operates ALPR cameras in Massachusetts?
115 operators in total. The largest is Worcester County Sheriff's Office with 54 mapped cameras, then Norfolk County Sheriff's Office with 52. Of cameras with a recorded operator type, 362 are police, 289 are sheriff's offices and 20 are privately run.
Are all the plate readers in Massachusetts made by Flock?
No. Flock Safety is tagged on 1,012 of 1,088 vendor-recorded cameras (93%); Motorola Solutions accounts for 25, and 147 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 Massachusetts?
BanditKin's navigation offers opt-in, field-of-view-aware camera avoidance with a strength slider, using the 1,103 Massachusetts cameras that have a recorded facing direction. If no camera-free route exists it says so and falls back to the normal route. Preferring not to be logged by a commercial surveillance network is a privacy preference — the app uses public camera-location data.