A new map released by Alexandria Police details the city’s flock camera locations

Our Take

Credit to WUSA9 for covering a rare moment of a police department actually publishing where its ALPR cameras live. That kind of disclosure should be the baseline, not a headline — yet most agencies running Flock Safety networks treat camera locations like classified intel, leaving residents to guess how thoroughly their daily movements are being logged.

The fact that Alexandria's map is drawing criticism "from both sides," as the station puts it, says a lot about where this debate actually sits. Some folks think any public acknowledgment of camera placement tips off criminals; others think a map is meaningless transparency theater if the public still has no real say over how long plate scans are stored, who can query them, or whether the data gets shared with ICE, bounty hunters, or out-of-state agencies chasing abortion or gender-affirming care cases. Both critiques can be true at once, and neither should let city officials off the hook for the bigger accountability questions a location map doesn't answer.

We'd rather see independently verified camera data than rely solely on what a police department chooses to release. Check our own crowdsourced Flock camera map to see what's been documented near you, and if Alexandria's rollout has you wondering what oversight — if any — governs your local network, our take-action guide walks through how to push your city council for real answers.