Flock & ALPR Cameras in San Francisco, California
Volunteers have reported 101 automated license plate readers in and around San Francisco — cameras that log every passing plate with a time and location.
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- Sep 11 Flock Safety camera newly reported
- Sep 9 Flock Safety camera newly reported
- Sep 7 Flock Safety camera newly reported
Newly reported by volunteers — cameras may have been up long before someone mapped them.
Where the cameras are in San Francisco
The readers mapped around San Francisco break down as 98 Flock Safety, 5 of unrecorded make, 2 Motorola Solutions. Named operators in the reports: San Francisco Police Department, Total Wine, Flock Safety, Simon Property Group. The first camera here was reported in May 2024; the most recent in Sep 2026.
- Geary Boulevard — 7 readers
- 4th Street — 6 readers
- 6th Street — 6 readers
- 8th Street — 6 readers
- Harrison Street — 5 readers
- Mission Street — 4 readers
- Arguello Boulevard — 4 readers
- Market Street — 3 readers
- Bryant Street — 3 readers
- South Van Ness Avenue — 3 readers
- Masonic Avenue — 3 readers
- McAllister Street — 3 readers
+ 18 more streets and roads mapped around San Francisco — all on the live map above.
San Francisco CA PD and the sharing network
Per Flock’s own transparency portal, San Francisco CA PD runs 507 cameras of its own. Its network connects to 332 other agencies — a plate read here can surface in searches far beyond city limits.
Connected agencies include: Alameda CA PD, Alameda County CA SO, Albany CA PD, Alhambra CA PD, Anaheim CA PD, Anderson CA PD, Angels Camp CA PD, Antioch CA PD.
San Francisco in the San Francisco County picture
San Francisco County has 443 reported cameras county-wide and ranks #471 of 3,222 U.S. counties for cameras per resident, inside the top 22% nationally. That’s across 836,321 residents and 371 road miles. By road density that is 1.20 cameras per road mile, in the top 0.1% of counties nationally.
Where contributors recorded what a camera watches, the split here is 97 traffic, 2 street. Operators named on the record: San Francisco Police Department (73), Total Wine (2), Flock Safety (1).
Camera activity around San Francisco, last 30 days
14 newly reported in our hourly change log for San Francisco. Latest change logged Sep 11, 2026.
What’s watching San Francisco
These aren’t red-light cameras. Automated license plate readers like Flock Safety’s photograph every plate that passes, log the time and place, and store it in a searchable database that’s often shared far beyond San Francisco — here’s where that data goes. Counts cover cameras reported closest to San Francisco (within ~20 km), so nearby towns share the same corridors. Spot one that’s missing? Report it on DeFlock.
The latest around San Francisco
- San Francisco Tightens Flock Camera Rules, but Privacy Advocate Calls Changes ‘Performative’
- As Americans vandalise Flock surveillance cameras across US, San Francisco says devices to stay but with
- As Americans vandalise Flock surveillance cameras across US, San Francisco says devices to stay but with tighter rules: What is changing
- San Francisco is sticking with Flock
What you can do in San Francisco
Ask who approved these cameras, how long plate data is kept, and who it’s shared with. File a public records request, raise it at a council meeting, and see the full playbook on Take Action. Fighting this locally? Join or start a chapter and we’ll amplify you.
Not sure what one looks like? See photographs of installed cameras before you go looking.
Cameras near San Francisco
← All California cameras, counties & cities
Camera reports: the open-source DeFlock project. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY).