Flock & ALPR cameras in Sacramento, CA
1,177 mapped ALPR cameras around metro Sacramento as of 3 September 2026, run by 22 operators — 87% of them with a recorded facing direction. See each one on the live map below — which way it faces and its approximate capture zone — free, no account. BanditKin is the private app that routes around them.
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What makes Sacramento different
Sacramento has fewer named operators than almost any metro on this site — but no single agency dominates it.
1,177 mapped cameras are attributed to just 22 operators. Among metros with more than 1,000 cameras, only San Diego, with 18, records fewer. At 53.5 cameras per operator Sacramento is the third-most concentrated network of the 251 metros BanditKin tracks, behind Houston and San Diego.
What makes it unusual is that the concentration does not come from one giant agency. In Houston a single department runs 50% of the metro's cameras and in San Diego 53%; in Sacramento the largest operator, Sacramento Police Department, runs 199 — just 17%. Add the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department's 151 and the top two together still account for under a third of the metro. Sacramento has few operators, each of them substantial: a flat network rather than a top-heavy one.
Flock is not the whole story here either. Motorola Solutions accounts for 154 mapped cameras — 13% of the metro and by far the largest non-Flock fleet here.
There is also a visible gap between the records and the map. The EFF Atlas lists the California Highway Patrol among Sacramento’s documented ALPR operators, yet the CHP does not appear among the metro’s mapped operators at all. In San Francisco the opposite is true — there the CHP is the single largest mapped operator. Public records and public maps are two different, incomplete views of the same thing.
Sacramento ALPR cameras by the numbers
Four numbers that describe the Sacramento network, taken from the map above on the same day.
1,177
Mapped ALPR cameras in metro Sacramento
22
Separate operating agencies on the map
1,023
Cameras with a recorded facing direction
964
Cameras tagged Flock Safety
Read from the live map on 3 September 2026. The underlying records are OpenStreetMap entries plus community submissions — nobody who operates a camera is obliged to declare it, so these are the documented minimum rather than the full picture. The metro is a box roughly 50 miles across centred on Sacramento.
How Sacramento compares
Upper third on size among the 251 metro areas tracked, all counted the same way on the same day.
Sacramento ranks 40th of the 251 metro areas BanditKin tracks by mapped cameras, between Minneapolis, MN and Cincinnati, OH, and 115th by operator count.
Its cameras-per-operator figure of 53.5 ranks 3rd, its lead operator's 17% share ranks 178th, and its 87% bearing coverage ranks 178th — all of 251.
Mapped ALPR cameras
1,177 — 40th of 251
Separate operators on the map
22 — 115th of 251
Cameras per operator
53.5 — 3rd of 251
Largest operator's share
17% — 178th of 251
Share with a recorded bearing
87% — 178th of 251
Ranked against the 251 metro areas BanditKin tracks, every one read from the live map on 3 September 2026. Metro areas are drawn as a box around the city centre, so neighbouring metros can share cameras and these counts must never be added together.
Which departments run the cameras around Sacramento
Who runs Sacramento's plate readers — the 20 biggest of 22 operators, by mapped cameras.
Sacramento Police Department
199 cameras
Sacramento County Sheriff's Department
151 cameras
Elk Grove Police Department
68 cameras
Rancho Cordova Police Department
58 cameras
Roseville Police Department
58 cameras
Citrus Heights Police Department
55 cameras
Placer County Sheriff's Department
42 cameras
Rocklin Police Department
37 cameras
Woodland Police Department
36 cameras
The Home Depot
30 cameras
West Sacramento Police Department
29 cameras
Yolo County Sheriff's Department
25 cameras
Dixon Police Department
21 cameras
Lowe's
21 cameras
Folsom Police Department
21 cameras
Kaiser Permanente
19 cameras
Lincoln Police Department
17 cameras
Davis Police Department
14 cameras
Galt Police Department
11 cameras
Loomis Police Department
9 cameras
These are the 20 largest of 22 operators. Where OpenStreetMap names an operator we use that name; otherwise the camera is attributed to whichever jurisdiction it stands in (725 cameras here), which is a sound inference rather than a confirmed fact. 251 cameras record no operator of any kind.
It isn't all Flock
'Flock' has become shorthand for any plate reader. Around Sacramento it is mostly accurate — 85% of the vendor-tagged cameras — but Motorola Solutions accounts for 154.
Flock Safety
964 cameras
Motorola Solutions
154 cameras
Genetec
15 cameras
Axis Communications
4 cameras
Leonardo
1 camera
Axon Enterprise
1 camera
Manufacturer is a free-text field, so spellings and legal names have been consolidated here. 38 of 1,177 mapped cameras name no manufacturer at all, which makes the actual distribution broader than shown. These count cameras on the map, not purchase orders.
Where they sit, and which way they face
1,023 of the 1,177 mapped cameras around Sacramento record which way they point, which is what makes routing around them possible.
They are easy to miss and hard to unsee — a small rectangular box on a narrow pole near a junction, generally with a solar panel and a stubby barrel lens. Where the data records how a camera around Sacramento is mounted, the split is:
On a dedicated pole
264 cameras
On a street lamp
38 cameras
On a trailer
1 camera
One camera covers one approach, so its heading is what decides which journeys end up recorded. Around Sacramento the mapped bearings distribute like this:
Facing south
169 cameras
Facing north
152 cameras
Facing east
143 cameras
Facing west
143 cameras
Facing southwest
122 cameras
Facing northeast
122 cameras
Facing southeast
89 cameras
Facing northwest
83 cameras
Bearings come from public map data and describe an approximate capture zone, never an exact field of view. 151 mapped cameras have no recorded bearing, and 3 are tagged as omnidirectional.
Documented ALPR programs around Sacramento
The EFF's Atlas of Surveillance documents 7 agencies in the Sacramento area with automated license plate readers, from public records and news reports. The map records 22 operators.
Elk Grove Police Department
The Elk Grove Police Department uses Flock Safety automated license plate readers. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Sacramento County Sheriff's Department
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department operates automated license plate readers. In 2024, a grand jury ruled that Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office did not fully comply with state laws regarding motorists’ privacy.
Galt Police Department
As of April 2024, the Galt Police Department operates 25 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Folsom Police Department
The Folsom Police Department scanned more than 28,500,000 license plates using Motorola Solutions license plate readers in 2022. Vendor: Motorola Solutions.
Sacramento Police Department
The Sacramento Police Department scanned more than 70 million license plates in 2022 using Motorola Solutions automated license plate readers. Vendor: Motorola Solutions.
Citrus Heights Police Department
The Citrus Heights Police Department operates automated license plate readers. In 2023, the agency applied fro a grant to lease 98 Flock Safety Falcon cameras, 11 Flock Safety Condor PTZ cameras, and 6 mobile security camera trailers. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Atlas of Surveillance. Summaries are the Atlas's own wording, trimmed to a complete sentence.
Seeing the cameras is free. Avoiding them is the app.
The map shows where the readers are and which way they face. BanditKin's navigation turns that into a routing preference: opt-in, field-of-view-aware, with a slider for how hard to try — and an honest fallback when no clean route exists.
This page is part of the California camera hub, which counts every camera inside the state line rather than by metro box. New to this? Read what ALPR cameras capture, how long it is kept, and who can search it. Not in Sacramento? Search the full map by any city.
ALPR camera maps for nearby and related cities: Los Angeles, CA · San Francisco, CA · Riverside, CA · San Jose, CA · San Diego, CA · Fresno, CA · Las Vegas, NV · Salt Lake City, UT · Provo, UT · Phoenix, AZ · Seattle, WA.
Get BanditKin on Google PlaySacramento ALPR questions
How many Flock cameras does Sacramento have?
As of 3 September 2026 the map records 1,177 ALPR cameras around Sacramento, 964 of them tagged Flock Safety, across 22 operators. The number only ever grows as more are mapped; it is not a complete inventory.
Where are Flock cameras in Sacramento?
The live map above shows 1,177 mapped ALPR cameras around metro Sacramento, each with an approximate viewing cone. Positions come from OpenStreetMap and community reports, so coverage may be incomplete — if you know a camera that isn't shown, you can report it directly on the map.
Who operates the ALPR cameras around Sacramento?
Sacramento Police Department is the largest mapped operator with 199 cameras, ahead of Sacramento County Sheriff's Department's 151. Beyond them the network spreads across 21 other operators. Private operators are part of it: The Home Depot (30), Lowe's (21). The EFF Atlas of Surveillance documents 7 agencies across this area.
Can I avoid Flock cameras when driving in Sacramento?
Avoidance runs off recorded bearings, and Sacramento has 1,023 of 1,177 mapped cameras with one. BanditKin's navigation can route around them: it is opt-in, field-of-view-aware, and has a strength slider you control. Where no camera-free route exists it says so plainly and falls back to the normal route. This is a privacy preference — choosing not to be logged by a commercial surveillance network on public roads — and it works from public camera-location data.
Is this map free? Do I need an account?
The map is free and needs no account or sign-in. The data is public — OpenStreetMap, the EFF Atlas of Surveillance and community reports. The app is what adds camera-aware routing, and early users keep it free.