Flock & ALPR Cameras in Urbandale, Iowa
Volunteers have reported 16 automated license plate readers in and around Urbandale — cameras that log every passing plate with a time and location.
Jurisdiction · by recorded street address
The 16 cameras counted on this page are every reader mapped within about 20 kilometres of Urbandale, so the count crosses municipal lines. By the street address recorded for each one, 15 of them sit inside Urbandale itself.
The rest sit in Des Moines (1).
13 of them name an operator in the record: Urbandale Police Department (13). 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 11 Flock Safety camera newly reported
Newly reported by volunteers — cameras may have been up long before someone mapped them.
Where the cameras are in Urbandale
The readers mapped around Urbandale break down as 15 Flock Safety, 1 of unrecorded make. Named operators in the reports: Urbandale Police Department. The first camera here was reported in May 2025; the most recent in Sep 2026.
- Douglas Avenue — 5 readers
- Meredith Drive — 2 readers
- 86th Street — 2 readers
- Northwest Urbandale Drive — 1 reader
- Plum Drive — 1 reader
- Northwest 100th Street — 1 reader
- 70th Street — 1 reader
- Aurora Avenue — 1 reader
- Brinkwood Road — 1 reader
- Dennis Drive — 1 reader
Urbandale IA PD and the sharing network
Per Flock’s own transparency portal, Urbandale IA PD runs 26 cameras of its own, has logged 210 plate-database searches, has captured 401,481 vehicle records. Its network connects to 125 other agencies — a plate read here can surface in searches far beyond city limits.
Connected agencies include: AR - Alma PD, Altoona IA PD, Ankeny IA PD, Anoka County MN SO, Arnolds Park IA PD, Bettendorf IA PD, Blue Springs MO PD, Branson MO PD.
Urbandale in the Polk County picture
Polk County has 161 reported cameras county-wide and ranks #951 of 3,222 U.S. counties for cameras per resident. That’s across 497,441 residents and 2,286 road miles. By road density that is 0.07 cameras per road mile, in the top 8.3% of counties nationally.
Where contributors recorded what a camera watches, the split here is 14 traffic, 1 street. Operators named on the record: Urbandale Police Department (13).
Camera activity around Urbandale, last 30 days
2 newly reported in our hourly change log for Urbandale. Latest change logged Sep 11, 2026.
What’s watching Urbandale
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 Urbandale — here’s where that data goes. Counts cover cameras reported closest to Urbandale (within ~20 km), so nearby towns share the same corridors. Spot one that’s missing? Report it on DeFlock.
The latest around Urbandale
- Urbandale residents question license-plate reader program at city council meeting
- Urbandale amends Flock camera contract due to privacy concerns
- Urbandale limits access to automated license plate reader data
- Urbandale amends contract with Flock camera company to improve data transparency
What you can do in Urbandale
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 Urbandale
← All Iowa cameras, counties & cities
Camera reports: the open-source DeFlock project. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY).