Crowdsourced DeFlock map lets US residents look up reported ALPR camera locations

First reported: August 12, 2026 · 1 source

An open-source project called DeFlock maintains an interactive, crowdsourced map of reported automated license plate reader locations across the United States, including cameras operated by Flock Safety. Users can search their city, zoom into neighborhoods and submit new sightings. The project does not claim to be complete or official, and its operators note that camera locations and classifications can change and that not every listed device is necessarily a Flock camera.

Why this matters

Public mapping projects have become one of the few practical ways residents can learn where vehicle surveillance equipment has been installed in their own communities, particularly where agencies have not published deployment details.

Key facts

DeFlock describes itself as an open-source, crowdsourced project mapping ALPRs and other surveillance equipment nationwide.
ALPR systems capture license plates and can also record vehicle make, model and color, tied to a time and camera location, making vehicle movements searchable.
Supporters, including police agencies, say ALPRs help recover stolen vehicles and generate investigative leads; privacy advocates raise concerns about data retention, access, inter-agency sharing and oversight.
The article notes the map is not an official government database and may be incomplete or out of date.
Reported by The Economic Times on Aug 12, 2026, citing recent CNET coverage of DeFlock.

Sources

This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.

You may be driving past Flock cameras without knowing it and now this searchable DeFlock map in US is rais (The Economic Times, August 12, 2026)

About this record

BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.

Updated August 12, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.