As of 13 October 2026, 230 Flock and ALPR cameras are mapped within 10 miles of downtown Seattle (121 tagged Flock Safety), and 825 across the wider Seattle metro, a box roughly 50 miles across, run by 67 operators. 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.
BanditKin › Flock camera map › Washington › Seattle, WA
A suburb out-cameras the core city, private operators show up in the top twenty, and 84% of the readers have a recorded facing — the Seattle picture in brief.
The largest fleet on the map is not the city's own. Renton Police Department runs 57 mapped cameras against Seattle Police Department's 13 — a pattern we have seen in Denver, where Aurora outranks Denver PD, and in Cincinnati, where the county sheriff outranks the city force.
Private businesses appear on Seattle's map: The Home Depot (33), Lowe's (29), Safeway (10) sit inside the twenty largest operators, and of the cameras with a recorded operator type, 12 are privately run rather than public. Those cameras are not run by any police agency, though their reads can be shared.
For the thing that actually matters when routing, Seattle is reasonably documented: 691 of its 825 mapped cameras — 84% — record which way they face, ranking 197th of 251 on bearing coverage.
Public records cover 19 agencies around Seattle in the EFF Atlas of Surveillance against 67 operators on the map — the difference between a records project and a mapping project, not a contradiction.
Sheriff's offices are prominent: Snohomish County Sheriff's Office sits in the top twelve, alongside municipal forces such as Washington State Department of Transportation, Federal Way Police, Tukwila Police Department.
Four numbers that describe the Seattle network, taken from the map above on the same day.
230
Flock & ALPR cameras within 10 miles of downtown Seattle
825
Across the wider Seattle metro (50-mile box)
67
Separate operating agencies on the map
691
Cameras with a recorded facing direction
Read from the live map on 13 October 2026. Since 5 October 2026 the 10-mile count moved from 226 to 230 (+4) and the metro-box count moved from 808 to 825 (+17). 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 Seattle.
Upper third on size among the 251 metro areas tracked, all counted the same way on the same day.
Seattle ranks 68th of the 251 metro areas BanditKin tracks by mapped cameras, between Tampa, FL and Bellevue, WA, and 28th by operator count.
On composition it ranks 238th on how much of the metro its largest operator holds (7%) and 197th on the share of cameras with a recorded bearing (84%) — a spread-out network.
Mapped ALPR cameras
825 — 68th of 251
Separate operators on the map
67 — 28th of 251
Cameras per operator
12.3 — 165th of 251
Largest operator's share
7% — 238th of 251
Share with a recorded bearing
84% — 197th of 251
Ranked against the 251 metro areas BanditKin tracks, every one read from the live map on 13 October 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.
Who runs Seattle's plate readers — the 20 biggest of 67 operators, by mapped cameras.
Renton Police Department
57 cameras
Washington State Department of Transportation
52 cameras
Federal Way Police
44 cameras
Tukwila Police Department
40 cameras
The Home Depot
33 cameras
Everett Police Department
33 cameras
Lowe's
29 cameras
Mill Creek Police Department
21 cameras
Snohomish County Sheriff's Office
19 cameras
Auburn Police Department
18 cameras
Auburn Police
17 cameras
SeaTac Police Department
15 cameras
Lynnwood Police
15 cameras
Des Moines Police
13 cameras
Seattle Police Department
13 cameras
Safeway
10 cameras
Edmonds Police Department
10 cameras
Federal Way Police Department
9 cameras
SeaTac Police
9 cameras
Newcastle Police Department
9 cameras
These are the 20 largest of 67 operators. Where OpenStreetMap names an operator we use that name; otherwise the camera is attributed to whichever jurisdiction it stands in (349 cameras here), which is a sound inference rather than a confirmed fact. 186 cameras record no operator of any kind.
'Flock' has become shorthand for any plate reader. Around Seattle it is mostly accurate — 77% of the vendor-tagged cameras — but Axon Enterprise accounts for 52.
Flock Safety
569 cameras
Axon Enterprise
52 cameras
Avigilon
24 cameras
Kapsch
21 cameras
Other w/ Rekor Scout
17 cameras
Rekor
17 cameras
Axis Communications
15 cameras
TransCore
8 cameras
Manufacturer is a free-text field, so spellings and legal names have been consolidated here. 67 of 825 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.
691 of the 825 mapped cameras around Seattle 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 Seattle:
On a dedicated pole
179 cameras
On a street lamp
38 cameras
On a building
16 cameras
On a ceiling
2 cameras
One camera covers one approach, so its heading is what decides which journeys end up recorded. Around Seattle the mapped bearings distribute like this:
Facing north
127 cameras
Facing south
111 cameras
Facing southeast
88 cameras
Facing east
85 cameras
Facing west
80 cameras
Facing southwest
80 cameras
Facing northwest
64 cameras
Facing northeast
56 cameras
Bearings come from public map data and describe an approximate capture zone, never an exact field of view. 123 mapped cameras have no recorded bearing, and 11 are tagged as omnidirectional.
Records-based sources document 19 agencies running plate readers around Seattle. Some of the largest are below; the map above shows where the cameras actually are.
The Auburn Police Department has been using automated license plate readers since at least 2008.
As of April 2024, the Medina Police Department operates 15 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The agency stores ALPR data for 30 days. Vendor: Flock Safety.
The Seattle Police Department uses automated license plate readers. Vendor: Autovu.
The Mercer Island Police Department purchased automated license plate readers for three vehicles July 2020.
The Renton Police Department uses automated license plate readers.
As of April 2024, the Tukwila Police Department operates 27 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.
Every camera on this map reads plates from one direction — the cone shows its approximate capture zone. BanditKin's private navigation uses those cones to route around cameras when you ask it to, with a strength slider you control. When a camera-free route doesn't exist, it says so honestly and falls back to the normal route.
This page is part of the Washington 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 Seattle? Search the full map by any city.
ALPR camera maps for nearby and related cities: Sacramento, CA · Salt Lake City, UT · San Francisco, CA · San Jose, CA · Provo, UT.
Get BanditKin on Google PlayAs of 13 October 2026, 230 Flock and ALPR cameras are mapped within 10 miles of downtown Seattle, 121 of them tagged Flock Safety. Across the wider metro, a box roughly 50 miles across, the map records 825 cameras run by 67 separate operators. That is a documented floor, not a full inventory: cameras appear as people map them, and 67 carry no manufacturer tag at all.
The live map above shows 825 mapped ALPR cameras around metro Seattle, 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.
Renton Police Department is the largest mapped operator with 57 cameras, ahead of Washington State Department of Transportation's 52. Beyond them the network spreads across 65 other operators. Private operators are part of it: The Home Depot (33), Lowe's (29). The EFF Atlas of Surveillance documents 19 agencies across this area.
Yes, within limits. BanditKin routes around the 691 Seattle cameras whose facing direction is known (84% 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.
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.