Flock & ALPR Cameras in Chinatown, New York
Volunteers have reported 26 automated license plate readers in and around Chinatown — cameras that log every passing plate with a time and location.
Jurisdiction · by recorded street address
The 26 cameras counted on this page are every reader mapped within about 20 kilometres of Chinatown, so the count crosses municipal lines. By the street address recorded for each one, 0 of them sit inside Chinatown itself.
The rest sit in New York (26).
23 of them name an operator in the record: New York City Police Department (11), NYC Department of Transportation (7), Metropolitan Transit Authority (5). 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.
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No new reports near Chinatown in the last 30 days — checked hourly, last checked Oct 7, 16:22 UTC. Cameras only get on the map when someone looks: be the one.
Where the cameras are in Chinatown
The readers mapped around Chinatown break down as 13 Leonardo, 5 Redspeed Redcurb, 4 Ekin Box Spotter. Named operators in the reports: New York City Police Department, NYC Department of Transportation, Metropolitan Transit Authority. The first camera here was reported in Nov 2025; the most recent in Aug 2026.
- Bowery — 3 readers
- FDR Drive — 2 readers
- Williamsburg Bridge — 2 readers
- Canal Street — 2 readers
- Manhattan Bridge — 2 readers
- Broadway — 2 readers
- Allen Street — 2 readers
- Lafayette Street — 1 reader
- Baxter Street — 1 reader
- Mott Street — 1 reader
- Division Street — 1 reader
- East Broadway — 1 reader
+ 6 more streets and roads mapped around Chinatown — all on the live map above.
Chinatown in the New York County picture
New York County has 299 reported cameras county-wide and ranks #1,444 of 3,222 U.S. counties for cameras per resident. That’s across 1,627,788 residents and 135 road miles. By road density that is 2.21 cameras per road mile, in the top 0% of counties nationally.
Where contributors recorded what a camera watches, the split here is 26 traffic. Operators named on the record: New York City Police Department (11), NYC Department of Transportation (7), Metropolitan Transit Authority (5).
Camera activity around Chinatown, last 30 days
2 newly reported in our hourly change log for Chinatown. Latest change logged Aug 18, 2026.
What’s watching Chinatown
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 Chinatown — here’s where that data goes. Counts cover cameras reported closest to Chinatown (within ~20 km), so nearby towns share the same corridors. Spot one that’s missing? Report it on DeFlock.
What you can do in Chinatown
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 Chinatown
← All New York cameras, counties & cities
Camera reports: the open-source DeFlock project. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY).