Flock & ALPR Cameras in Indianola, Iowa
Volunteers have reported 9 automated license plate readers in and around Indianola — cameras that log every passing plate with a time and location.
On the record · Paused
Indianola is on the record here. Indianola Police Chief Rob Hawkins announced that beginning August 17, 2026 the department deactivated its eight Flock cameras and disabled outside-agency access to the data. KCRG and the Des Moines Register reported the program costs about $24,000 a year. Cameras remain installed pending coordination with Flock. Untied data will purge in 30 days. The department said it is listening to privacy concerns and watching the 2027 legislative session.
Jurisdiction · by recorded street address
The 9 cameras counted on this page are every reader mapped within about 20 kilometres of Indianola, so the count crosses municipal lines. By the street address recorded for each one, 8 of them sit inside Indianola itself.
The rest sit in Ackworth (1).
9 of them name an operator in the record: Indianola Police Department (9). 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.
No new reports near Indianola in the last 30 days — checked hourly, last checked Oct 7, 21:33 UTC. Cameras only get on the map when someone looks: be the one.
Where the cameras are in Indianola
The readers mapped around Indianola break down as 9 Flock Safety. Named operators in the reports: Indianola Police Department. The first camera here was reported in Dec 2025; the most recent in Jan 2026.
- North Jefferson Way — 2 readers
- East 2nd Avenue — 2 readers
- US 65;US 69 — 1 reader
- South Jefferson Way — 1 reader
- State Highway 92 — 1 reader
- IA 92 — 1 reader
- South R Street — 1 reader
Indianola IA PD and the sharing network
Per Flock’s own transparency portal, Indianola IA PD runs 9 cameras of its own, has logged 29 plate-database searches, has captured 115,250 vehicle records. Its network connects to 56 other agencies — a plate read here can surface in searches far beyond city limits.
Connected agencies include: Altoona IA PD, Ankeny IA PD, Arnolds Park IA PD, Bettendorf IA PD, Burlington IA PD, Camanche IA PD, Carlisle IA PD, Carter Lake IA PD.
Indianola in the Warren County picture
Warren County has 21 reported cameras county-wide and ranks #750 of 3,222 U.S. counties for cameras per resident. That’s across 53,484 residents and 1,006 road miles. By road density that is 0.02 cameras per road mile, in the top 28.4% of counties nationally.
Where contributors recorded what a camera watches, the split here is 9 traffic. Operators named on the record: Indianola Police Department (9).
What’s watching Indianola
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 Indianola — here’s where that data goes. Counts cover cameras reported closest to Indianola (within ~20 km), so nearby towns share the same corridors. Spot one that’s missing? Report it on DeFlock.
The latest around Indianola
- Indianola police suspend license plate reader program
- 3 license plate readers reported removed near Indianola, IA
- Indianola, IA: Paused
What you can do in Indianola
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 Indianola
← All Iowa cameras, counties & cities
Camera reports: the open-source DeFlock project. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY).