Flock & ALPR Cameras in Santa Cruz, California
Volunteers have reported 5 automated license plate readers in and around Santa Cruz — cameras that log every passing plate with a time and location.
On the record · Contract Canceled
Santa Cruz is on the record here. The Santa Cruz City Council voted 6-1 to terminate their contract with Flock Safety after evidence that the city's data was accessed by out-of-state agencies (ICE) roughly 4,000x.
Need this city’s camera data? Custom extracts are free for researchers, journalists and advocates. Ask for it.
No new reports near Santa Cruz in the last 30 days — checked hourly, last checked Oct 8, 13:02 UTC. Cameras only get on the map when someone looks: be the one.
Where the cameras are in Santa Cruz
The readers mapped around Santa Cruz break down as 5 Genetec. Named operators in the reports: University of California, Santa Cruz. The first camera here was reported in Sep 2025; the most recent in Mar 2026.
- Coolidge Drive — 2 readers
- Heller Drive — 2 readers
- McAllister Way — 1 reader
Santa Cruz CA PD and the sharing network
Per Flock’s own transparency portal, Santa Cruz CA PD runs 1 cameras of its own. Its network connects to 236 other agencies — a plate read here can surface in searches far beyond city limits.
Connected agencies include: Berkeley CA PD, Culver City CA PD, Cypress CA PD, Danville CA PD, Del Norte County CA SO, Delano CA PD, Desert Hot Springs CA PD, Dinuba CA PD.
Santa Cruz in the Santa Cruz County picture
Santa Cruz County has 88 reported cameras county-wide and ranks #934 of 3,222 U.S. counties for cameras per resident. That’s across 266,021 residents and 2,010 road miles. By road density that is 0.04 cameras per road mile, in the top 14.5% of counties nationally.
Where contributors recorded what a camera watches, the split here is 3 entrance. Operators named on the record: University of California, Santa Cruz (5).
What’s watching Santa Cruz
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 Santa Cruz — here’s where that data goes. Counts cover cameras reported closest to Santa Cruz (within ~20 km), so nearby towns share the same corridors. Spot one that’s missing? Report it on DeFlock.
The latest around Santa Cruz
- Santa Cruz County orders masks at nursing, infusion centers this winter
- Guest Commentary | Santa Cruz makes national news: The good, the bad, and the ugly
- Santa Cruz County reinstates mask requirement in skilled nursing facilities, infusion centers
- Santa Cruz mayoral candidates Ami Chen Mills, Ryan Coonerty clash over AI, Flock cameras and campaign conduct
What you can do in Santa Cruz
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 Santa Cruz
← All California cameras, counties & cities
Camera reports: the open-source DeFlock project. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY).