Flock & ALPR Cameras in San Mateo, California
Volunteers have reported 48 automated license plate readers in and around San Mateo — cameras that log every passing plate with a time and location.
Jurisdiction · by recorded street address
The 47 cameras counted on this page are every reader mapped within about 20 kilometres of San Mateo, so the count crosses municipal lines. By the street address recorded for each one, 38 of them sit inside San Mateo itself.
The rest sit in Hillsborough (5), Burlingame (4).
29 of them name an operator in the record: San Mateo Police Department (17), Flock Safety (8), Burlingame Police Department (2), The Gardens HOA (2). The operator is who runs the camera, which is not always the local government.
Source: community-mapped camera data (OpenStreetMap, ODbL), with addresses resolved by Nominatim.
Need this city’s camera data? Custom extracts are free for researchers, journalists and advocates. Ask for it.
- Sep 26 Flock Safety camera newly reported
- Sep 16 Flock Safety camera newly reported
- Sep 16 Flock Safety camera newly reported
- Sep 9 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 Mateo
The readers mapped around San Mateo break down as 41 Flock Safety, 3 of unrecorded make, 1 Verkada. Named operators in the reports: San Mateo Police Department, Flock Safety, Burlingame Police Department, The Gardens HOA. The first camera here was reported in Sep 2024; the most recent in Sep 2026.
- South El Camino Real — 6 readers
- East Poplar Avenue — 4 readers
- Peninsula Avenue — 3 readers
- Alameda de las Pulgas — 3 readers
- South Norfolk Street — 3 readers
- South Delaware Street — 2 readers
- West 20th Avenue — 2 readers
- East 3rd Avenue — 2 readers
- North Bayshore Boulevard — 2 readers
- East 4th Avenue — 2 readers
- Crystal Springs Road — 2 readers
- Yale Drive — 1 reader
+ 13 more streets and roads mapped around San Mateo — all on the live map above.
San Mateo CA PD and the sharing network
Per Flock’s own transparency portal, San Mateo CA PD runs 66 cameras of its own, has captured 798,069 vehicle records. Its network connects to 293 other agencies — a plate read here can surface in searches far beyond city limits.
Connected agencies include: Alameda County CA SO, Albany CA PD, Alhambra CA PD, Anaheim CA PD, Anderson CA PD, Angels Camp CA PD, Antioch CA PD, Atherton CA PD.
San Mateo in the San Mateo County picture
San Mateo County has 628 reported cameras county-wide and ranks #164 of 3,222 U.S. counties for cameras per resident, inside the top 7.6% nationally. That’s across 745,100 residents and 1,847 road miles. By road density that is 0.34 cameras per road mile, in the top 0.4% of counties nationally.
Where contributors recorded what a camera watches, the split here is 22 traffic, 15 street. Operators named on the record: San Mateo Police Department (17), Flock Safety (8), Burlingame Police Department (2).
Camera activity around San Mateo, last 30 days
3 newly reported in our hourly change log for San Mateo. Latest change logged Sep 9, 2026.
What’s watching San Mateo
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 Mateo — here’s where that data goes. Counts cover cameras reported closest to San Mateo (within ~20 km), so nearby towns share the same corridors. Spot one that’s missing? Report it on DeFlock.
The latest around San Mateo
- 2 new license plate readers reported around San Mateo, CA
- 2 new license plate readers reported around San Mateo, CA
- San Mateo County grand jury calls for stronger oversight for license plate readers
- San Mateo panel approves Clearview Way housing conversion: Office campus that houses GoPro HQ greenlit for redevelopment
What you can do in San Mateo
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 Mateo
← All California cameras, counties & cities
Camera reports: the open-source DeFlock project. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY).