Your city council can approve license plate cameras without you ever finding out.
ALPR Radar checks local government agendas for license plate readers and similar surveillance proposals. When one comes up for a vote near you, you get an email with enough notice to show up and organise.
What we're tracking right now
municipalities monitored
confirmed hearings tracked
states covered
ALPR cameras mapped
Most people find out only after the vote
These proposals rarely get their own agenda item. They're a line in a consent agenda, a budget request labeled "public safety technology," or a contract renewal on page 40 of a packet nobody reads in full.
Meetings happen on weekday evenings. Agendas post a few days out, and nobody publicises the vote ahead of time. Most residents hear about it after the contract's already signed. None of that is illegal, it's just how city government runs, and these decisions get almost no public attention as a result.
The dangers of ALPRs
ALPRs are a serious risk to your privacy and civil liberties. These systems continuously record your movements without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion. Your driving history is rarely confined to the town or city where the cameras are installed. It's typically shared with thousands of other agencies nationwide, often without any public disclosure. Once the data leaves your community, you have no control over how it's used or what rules apply.
Privacy violations
EFF found that in 2019, just 82 agencies collected over a billion license plate scans, and 99.9% of that data wasn't tied to any active investigation.
Risk of misuse
A misread plate got an Aurora, CO family handcuffed face down on the pavement, a $1.9 million settlement. A Texas deputy used a nationwide camera network to search for a woman who'd had an abortion.
Limited benefits
The vendor's own crime-reduction stats come from a study it funded itself. A Vallejo, CA police trial found over a third of hits were misreads.
High costs
Typical contracts run $2,500 to $3,000 per camera per year as a lease, not a purchase. The city never owns the hardware, and the cost never really drops off.
Weak oversight
Reporting tied to one Illinois department found over 4,000 lookups run for or on behalf of ICE, an agency with no contract for the data at all.
A chilling effect
EFF found over 50 agencies ran searches tied to protest activity in a 10-month span, in some cases targeting known activist groups directly.
Where we're watching right now
This list grows as volunteers add more municipalities to watch.
2,854 municipalities across 50 states.
Start typing to search municipalities by city or state.
How it works
A volunteer moderator checks every match by hand before it ever reaches your inbox.
We watch the agendas
Every week we check city and county agendas for anything about license plate cameras or similar tech.
A hearing gets flagged
A volunteer reads the actual agenda item and checks whether it's a real surveillance proposal before anything goes out.
You get an alert
If it's inside your radius, you get an email telling you when the meeting is, where it is, and what's being proposed.
One email per hearing, after a person checks it
You won't hear from us the moment a keyword shows up in a scraped PDF. A moderator confirms the hearing is real first, and every alert links to the actual agenda so you can check it yourself.
This email is a made-up example, for illustration only.
License plate camera proposal in Example City, Sept 9
Here's what's been proposed:
Example City, CA
Meeting date: Tuesday, September 9, 2026, 7:00 PM
Location: 100 Civic Center Dr, Example City, CA
Technology: Flock Safety ALPR
Notes: Proposal for 6 fixed camera locations, three-year contract.
View the agenda →Unsubscribe
Get alerted
Enter your ZIP code and how far you're willing to travel. We'll email you when a moderator confirms a hearing within that radius.