Flock camera exposure report
Put in your home and the drive you make every day. See how many license plate cameras that drive passes, every one on a map, and whether a route with fewer of them exists. Free to run, nothing to sign up for.
Method
How the score is worked out
The score runs from 0 to 100 and is a rough index, not a measurement. Half of it comes from the address: cameras within a mile count three times as much as those further out, on a scale that rises quickly for the first few and levels off, so a small town with three cameras lands near 10 and a dense metro in the 80s.
The other half comes from the drive: each reported camera within 75 metres of the road you take and aimed at it. The first handful matter most — the tenth camera on a commute adds less than the first. Cameras that are close by but recorded as facing another street are listed, and left out of the score. Where nobody recorded which way a camera faces, it is counted as watching.
With no drive entered, the address alone is scaled to the full 100. Every figure rests on cameras volunteers have mapped, so it can only undercount. Missing one? Report it and it joins the next snapshot.
Exposure report FAQs
How does the exposure report work?
You give an address and, if you like, a place you regularly drive to. The report counts every license plate camera reported within one and five miles of the address, works out the drive, and checks which reported cameras sit within 75 metres of the road you would take and whether they are aimed at it. It then looks for a different drive that passes fewer.
Is my address stored anywhere?
Not by this site. The report is worked out in your browser against the public camera file. To turn an address into map coordinates your browser asks OpenStreetMap's geocoder, and to plot a drive it asks a routing service; those two lookups go straight from your browser to them, and nothing about them is saved here.
Is this every camera near me?
No. It is every camera a volunteer has reported to OpenStreetMap, so treat each number as a floor. Coverage is strongest in metro areas. A camera can also stand for months before anyone maps it.
Does a route with fewer cameras always exist?
No. Where cameras cover the only bridge, highway ramp or road into a neighbourhood there may be no way round them, and the report says so. An alternative is only offered if it takes no more than twice as long as your usual drive.
Can this tell me whether my plate has been scanned?
No. This report is about where cameras are. Whether a particular plate was read or searched is held by the agencies that run them. The full report includes a public-records request letter you can send to a local agency to ask for its search logs.
What is free and what is paid?
The count for your drive, the map, the score and the first few cameras are free. Camera Watch ($10 a year or $2 a month, with a 7-day free trial) adds every camera on your drive and around your home with who runs it, the route that passes fewer cameras with turn-by-turn directions, and an email whenever a new camera is reported near your home, work or drive. Cancel anytime.