Flock & ALPR cameras in San Jose, CA
1,779 mapped ALPR cameras around metro San Jose as of 3 September 2026, run by 47 operators — the largest operator holding 30% of the total. 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 San Jose different
San Jose has an unusually diverse vendor mix: CoStar, Verkada, Bosch and Jenoptik all appear in the public data alongside the usual names, where most metros record only Flock and a handful of others. For the region that builds much of this technology, the local deployment is notably heterogeneous.
San Jose Police Department runs 528 of the 1,779 mapped cameras, about 30%, and public records show it retains ALPR data for 365 days — far longer than the 30-day retention several other agencies in this set publish. Stanford University appears as an operator in its own right, with 19 mapped cameras.
San Jose is one of seven California metros with a dedicated camera page. See the California ALPR camera overview for city-by-city counts across the state.
San Jose ALPR cameras by the numbers
Four numbers that describe the San Jose network, taken from the map above on the same day.
1,779
Mapped ALPR cameras in metro San Jose
47
Separate operating agencies on the map
1,658
Cameras with a recorded facing direction
1,487
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 San Jose.
How San Jose compares
Top of the table on size among the 251 metro areas tracked, all counted the same way on the same day.
San Jose ranks 18th of the 251 metro areas BanditKin tracks by mapped cameras, between Paterson, NJ and Detroit, MI, and 58th by operator count.
Its cameras-per-operator figure of 37.9 ranks 16th, its lead operator's 30% share ranks 95th, and its 93% bearing coverage ranks 85th — all of 251.
Mapped ALPR cameras
1,779 — 18th of 251
Separate operators on the map
47 — 58th of 251
Cameras per operator
37.9 — 16th of 251
Largest operator's share
30% — 95th of 251
Share with a recorded bearing
93% — 85th 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 San Jose
The mapped cameras around San Jose trace back to 47 separate operators. San Jose Police Department accounts for the largest single share.
San Jose Police Department
528 cameras
Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department - Saratoga
132 cameras
Fremont Police Department
64 cameras
Atherton Police Department
53 cameras
Santa Clara Police Department
49 cameras
Hayward Police Department
49 cameras
Morgan Hill Police Department
47 cameras
Milpitas Police Department
45 cameras
Gilroy Police Department
42 cameras
Palo Alto Police Department
42 cameras
Alameda County Sheriff's Office
39 cameras
Los Gatos Police Department
36 cameras
Pleasanton Police Department
33 cameras
Menlo Park Police Department
32 cameras
Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department
28 cameras
California Highway Patrol
28 cameras
Mountain View Police Department
26 cameras
Campbell Police Department
24 cameras
Redwood City Police Department
22 cameras
Newark Police Department
22 cameras
These are the 20 largest of 47 operators. Where OpenStreetMap names an operator we use that name; otherwise the camera is attributed to whichever jurisdiction it stands in (1,336 cameras here), which is a sound inference rather than a confirmed fact. 255 cameras record no operator of any kind.
It isn't all Flock
'Flock' has become shorthand for any plate reader. Around San Jose it is mostly accurate — 93% of the vendor-tagged cameras — but CoStar accounts for 26.
Flock Safety
1,487 cameras
CoStar
26 cameras
Neology
17 cameras
Axis Communications
16 cameras
Motorola Solutions
16 cameras
Genetec
13 cameras
Bosch
9 cameras
Verkada
8 cameras
Manufacturer is a free-text field, so spellings and legal names have been consolidated here. 180 of 1,779 mapped cameras name no manufacturer at all, which makes the actual distribution broader than shown. 2 further manufacturers fall below the eight shown. These count cameras on the map, not purchase orders.
Where they sit, and which way they face
1,658 of the 1,779 mapped cameras around San Jose record which way they point, which is what makes routing around them possible.
Most readers sit on a dedicated pole a few metres up, angled at one lane of traffic, with a solar panel above. Where the mount is recorded around San Jose:
On a dedicated pole
567 cameras
On a street lamp
49 cameras
On a wall
7 cameras
On an overhead gantry
1 camera
On a building
1 camera
On a post
1 camera
One camera covers one approach, so its heading is what decides which journeys end up recorded. Around San Jose the mapped bearings distribute like this:
Facing south
243 cameras
Facing southwest
221 cameras
Facing northwest
218 cameras
Facing north
210 cameras
Facing southeast
200 cameras
Facing northeast
196 cameras
Facing west
188 cameras
Facing east
182 cameras
Bearings come from public map data and describe an approximate capture zone, never an exact field of view. 121 mapped cameras have no recorded bearing.
Documented ALPR programs around San Jose
14 agencies around San Jose appear in the EFF Atlas of Surveillance as ALPR users — a records count, against the 47 operators physically on the map.
Campbell Police Department
As of April 2024, the Campbell Police Department operates 22 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Gilroy Police Department
As of April 2024, the Gilroy Police Department operates 39 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Los Altos Police Department
As of April 2024, the Los Altos Police Department operates 10 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Milpitas Police Department
The City of Milpitas approved the purchase of 20 automated license plate readers from Flock Safety in May 2020. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Morgan Hill Police Department
As of April 2024, the Morgan Hill Police Department operates 49 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days. Vendor: Flock Safety.
Palo Alto Police Department
As of April 2024, the Palo Alto Police Department operates 21 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days. 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.
Knowing where the cameras are is half of it. The BanditKin app routes around the ones with a recorded bearing when you ask it to, tells you plainly when it can't, and never sends your identity or location anywhere.
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 San Jose? Search the full map by any city.
ALPR camera maps for nearby and related cities: Los Angeles, CA · San Francisco, CA · Riverside, CA · San Diego, CA · Sacramento, CA · Fresno, CA · Las Vegas, NV · Provo, UT · Salt Lake City, UT · Phoenix, AZ · Tucson, AZ.
Get BanditKin on Google PlaySan Jose ALPR questions
How many Flock cameras does San Jose have?
Public map data records 1,779 ALPR cameras around metro San Jose as of 3 September 2026, run by 47 separate operators. 1,487 are tagged Flock Safety. That count is a floor, not a full inventory: cameras appear on the map as people map them, and 180 carry no manufacturer tag at all.
Where are Flock cameras in San Jose?
Open the map at the top of this page: every mapped camera around San Jose 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 San Jose?
47 operators in total, led by San Jose Police Department (528) and Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department - Saratoga (132). Of the cameras with a recorded operator type, 1,102 are police, 234 are sheriff's offices and 11 are privately run.
Can I avoid Flock cameras when driving in San Jose?
Avoidance runs off recorded bearings, and San Jose has 1,658 of 1,779 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.