Flock & ALPR Cameras in Salem, Massachusetts
Volunteers have reported 2 automated license plate readers in and around Salem — cameras that log every passing plate with a time and location.
On the record · Contract Canceled
Salem is on the record here. Salem, MA chose not to renew its Flock Safety contract. Cited reasons: Data ownership / local-control concerns; Seeking replacement vendor.
Need this city’s camera data? Custom extracts are free for researchers, journalists and advocates. Ask for it.
On the agenda: Salem City Council Regular Meeting — surveillance camera (Oct 8)
Thursday, October 8 — tomorrow · The full record → · Read the agenda ↗
Every record for this area on the Docket → · nothing is ever deleted.
No new reports near Salem in the last 30 days — checked hourly, last checked Oct 7, 16:20 UTC. Cameras only get on the map when someone looks: be the one.
Where the cameras are in Salem
The readers mapped around Salem break down as 2 Flock Safety. Named operators in the reports: Salem Police. The first camera here was reported in Mar 2026; the most recent in Apr 2026.
- Kernwood Street — 1 reader
- Blaney Street — 1 reader
Salem MA PD and the sharing network
Per Flock’s own transparency portal, Salem MA PD appears in the sharing network with connections to 16 other agencies.
Salem in the Essex County picture
Essex County has 92 reported cameras county-wide and ranks #1,699 of 3,222 U.S. counties for cameras per resident. That’s across 807,258 residents and 3,168 road miles. By road density that is 0.03 cameras per road mile, in the top 22% of counties nationally.
Where contributors recorded what a camera watches, the split here is 2 traffic. Operators named on the record: Salem Police (2).
Camera activity around Salem, last 30 days
2 removed in our hourly change log for Salem. Latest change logged Aug 22, 2026.
What’s watching Salem
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 Salem — here’s where that data goes. Counts cover cameras reported closest to Salem (within ~20 km), so nearby towns share the same corridors. Spot one that’s missing? Report it on DeFlock.
The latest around Salem
- On the agenda: Salem City Council Regular Meeting — surveillance camera (Oct 8)
- On the agenda: Salem meeting — license plate reader (Aug 11)
- Salem, Massachusetts, cuts ties with Flock Safety over data privacy concerns
- Salem, MA: Contract Canceled
What you can do in Salem
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 Salem
← All Massachusetts cameras, counties & cities
Camera reports: the open-source DeFlock project. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY).