How the numbers work

PlateWatch is a public ledger of money spent on automatic license plate readers (ALPR) and GPS tracking devices by US states, counties, cities, and allied agencies. It is not a complete census of every camera. It is a running total of what can be documented, modeled from published prices, and contributed by people with files.

Three kinds of records

Documented rows are named contracts with a dollar figure from a public record, council agenda, FOIA release, or news report that cites the contract. Examples include Detroit's $5 million ALPR expansion, Pflugerville's Flock subscription, Beaumont's two-year Falcon deal, and Wheaton's 44-camera lease.

Modeled rows apply published 2024–2026 Flock list pricing (about $2,500–$3,000 per camera per year; we use $2,750) to camera counts reported in news or scaled to Flock's disclosed ~120,000-camera national network. GPS electronic monitoring is modeled from a national caseload on the order of 180,000 devices at about $8/day program cost, distributed by state population. Covert vehicle GPS trackers are a smaller modeled procurement line.

Community rows are uploaded by signed-in users — a single contract or a CSV of many. They are labeled as community so you can tell them apart from the research set.

What is in, and what is not

In: ALPR cameras (Flock Falcon/Sparrow/Wing, Motorola Vigilant, Genetec, and others), Flock-style PTZ and related sensors when they appear in the same contracts, GPS ankle/wrist monitors used by courts and corrections, and agency-owned vehicle trackers.

Out: private HOA cameras that never hit a public budget, vendor acquisition prices (Motorola's purchase of Vigilant is not public spending), and classified federal programs we cannot source.

Sources

• Flock network size and agency footprint, including ~120,000 cameras across 49 states.
• Public contract roundups with city-level dollar figures (Beaumont, La Cañada Flintridge, UNC Chapel Hill, Lynnwood, Evanston, Wheaton).
• Dallas PD camera count (~670) reported in 2026 local television.
• Detroit City Council $5 million ALPR expansion (Detroit Free Press).
• Pew research on electronic offender-tracking devices.
• Atlas of Surveillance and Brennan Center ALPR explainers.

Selecting a state on the map animates that jurisdiction's running total. Add what your city council actually signed — a PDF, a CSV, or a scanned agenda — from Add a record.