Flock & ALPR cameras in Saint Paul, MN
1,077 mapped ALPR cameras around metro Saint Paul as of 3 September 2026, run by 83 operators — 82% of the vendor-tagged ones Flock Safety. 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 Saint Paul different
Private operators show up in the top twenty, and 89% of the readers have a recorded facing — the Saint Paul picture in brief.
Minneapolis Police Department is the dominant operator, with 93 of the 1,077 mapped cameras — 9% of the metro, ahead of Edina Police Department on 42. That lead share ranks 231st of the 251 metros BanditKin tracks, so Saint Paul is a comparatively spread-out network.
Not every reader here belongs to a public body. The Home Depot (15) appear among the largest operators, and 14 of the cameras carrying an operator type are recorded as private.
Bearing coverage — the share of cameras whose facing is recorded — is 89% around Saint Paul, 148th of 251. Cameras without a bearing still show on the map, but the app cannot route around them with any precision.
Public records cover 11 agencies around Saint Paul in the EFF Atlas of Surveillance against 83 operators on the map — the difference between a records project and a mapping project, not a contradiction.
Saint Paul ALPR cameras by the numbers
The headline figures for Saint Paul, all read from one pull of the live map.
1,077
Mapped ALPR cameras in metro Saint Paul
83
Separate operating agencies on the map
962
Cameras with a recorded facing direction
842
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 Saint Paul.
How Saint Paul compares
Upper third on size among the 251 metro areas tracked, all counted the same way on the same day.
Saint Paul ranks 44th of the 251 metro areas BanditKin tracks by mapped cameras, between Stamford, CT and Scottsdale, AZ, and 22nd by operator count.
Upper third on size; 148th of 251 on bearing coverage at 89%, and 231st on lead-operator share at 9%.
Mapped ALPR cameras
1,077 — 44th of 251
Separate operators on the map
83 — 22nd of 251
Cameras per operator
13.0 — 150th of 251
Largest operator's share
9% — 231st of 251
Share with a recorded bearing
89% — 148th 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 Saint Paul
83 operators appear on the map around Saint Paul; the 20 largest are listed here.
Minneapolis Police Department
93 cameras
Edina Police Department
42 cameras
Hopkins Police Department
33 cameras
St. Louis Park Police Department
33 cameras
Blaine Police Department
33 cameras
Cottage Grove Police Department
31 cameras
Woodbury Police Department
31 cameras
St. Paul Police Department
29 cameras
Stillwater Police Department
26 cameras
Lakeville Police Department
25 cameras
Coon Rapids Police Department
25 cameras
Brooklyn Park Police Department
23 cameras
Eden Prairie Police Department
21 cameras
Minnetonka Police Department
21 cameras
Fridley Police Department
20 cameras
Brooklyn Center Police Department
19 cameras
The Home Depot
15 cameras
North Oaks Police Department
14 cameras
Burnsville Police Department
13 cameras
Roseville Police Department
13 cameras
These are the 20 largest of 83 operators. Where OpenStreetMap names an operator we use that name; otherwise the camera is attributed to whichever jurisdiction it stands in (679 cameras here), which is a sound inference rather than a confirmed fact. 281 cameras record no operator of any kind.
It isn't all Flock
'Flock' has become shorthand for any plate reader. Around Saint Paul it is mostly accurate — 82% of the vendor-tagged cameras — but Motorola Solutions accounts for 67.
Flock Safety
842 cameras
Motorola Solutions
67 cameras
Insight LPR
46 cameras
Axis Communications
38 cameras
Genetec
20 cameras
Neology
6 cameras
Rekor
2 cameras
Axon Enterprise
1 camera
Manufacturer is a free-text field, so spellings and legal names have been consolidated here. 55 of 1,077 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
962 of the 1,077 mapped cameras around Saint Paul 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 Saint Paul is mounted, the split is:
On a dedicated pole
156 cameras
On a street lamp
19 cameras
On an overhead gantry
3 cameras
On a ceiling
3 cameras
On a wall
2 cameras
On a post
1 camera
One camera covers one approach, so its heading is what decides which journeys end up recorded. Around Saint Paul the mapped bearings distribute like this:
Facing south
143 cameras
Facing east
135 cameras
Facing north
127 cameras
Facing southeast
121 cameras
Facing west
120 cameras
Facing northwest
114 cameras
Facing southwest
107 cameras
Facing northeast
95 cameras
Bearings come from public map data and describe an approximate capture zone, never an exact field of view. 114 mapped cameras have no recorded bearing, and 1 is tagged as omnidirectional.
Documented ALPR programs around Saint Paul
The EFF's Atlas of Surveillance documents 11 agencies in the Saint Paul area with automated license plate readers, from public records and news reports. The map records 83 operators.
New Brighton Department of Public Safety
The New Brighton Department of Public Safety has access to other agencies' automated license plate reader data through Vigilant Solutions. Vendor: Vigilant Solutions.
Mounds View Police Department
The Mounds View Police Department scanned 62,302 license plates in 2019 using Vigilant Solutions automated license plate readers. Vendor: Vigilant Solutions.
Ramsey County Sheriff's Office
The Ramsey County Sheriff's Office uses automated license plate readers, including Flock Safety cameras. Previously it has also used Motorola Solutions (formerly Vigilant Solutions). Vendor: Motorola Solutions, Flock Safety.
Maplewood Police Department
The Maplewood Police Department disclosed to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that it uses automated license plate readers.
Minnesota State Patrol
The Minnesota State Patrol disclosed to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that it uses automated license plate readers.
North Saint Paul Police Department
The North Saint Paul Police Department disclosed to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that it uses automated license plate readers.
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 Minnesota 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 Saint Paul? Search the full map by any city.
ALPR camera maps for nearby and related cities: Rockford, IL · Milwaukee, WI · Aurora, IL · Chicago, IL · Kansas City, MO.
Get BanditKin on Google PlaySaint Paul ALPR questions
How many Flock cameras does Saint Paul have?
1,077 mapped cameras in a box roughly 50 miles across centred on Saint Paul, as of 3 September 2026. Minneapolis Police Department runs the most (93). Treat it as a documented minimum.
Where are Flock cameras in Saint Paul?
Open the map at the top of this page: every mapped camera around Saint Paul is plotted with its capture cone where a bearing is recorded. They cluster at junctions, on arterial roads and at the entrances to shopping centres. Missing one? Report it on the map.
Who operates the ALPR cameras around Saint Paul?
83 operators in total, led by Minneapolis Police Department (93) and Edina Police Department (42). Of the cameras with a recorded operator type, 667 are police, 12 are sheriff's offices and 14 are privately run.
Can I avoid Flock cameras when driving in Saint Paul?
Yes, within limits. BanditKin routes around the 962 Saint Paul cameras whose facing direction is known (89% of the total), with a slider for how hard to try, and it tells you honestly when no camera-free route exists. It is off by default and never sends your identity or location.
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.