Here Are The Locations Of All Flock License Plate Readers In The Quad Cities

We've long discussed the speed enforcement cameras in Davenport. From the days of a van with a person inside snapping photos of speeders and mailing them out, to now an automated box and automated vans that move around the city, nabbing photos - and that doesn't even include the ones sitting on stoplight poles.

Now, there's a new type of camera in the Quad Cities, and this one is a little more controversial than the already highly controversial speed cameras.

What Is An ALPR?

They're called ALPRs: Automated License Plate Readers. The most well-known brand to people is from the company Flock Safety.

How ALPRs Work

ALPRs are AI-powered, capturing and analyzing all passing vehicles, storing details like a car's location, date, and time. The cameras capture details like make, model, color and even identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers.

Nationwide, the cameras collect data from millions of vehicles, explained as a tool to help fight crime. If a vehicle is described to law enforcement, they can put those details into their database.

A description like "It was a white car with a Cubs bumper sticker on the right side of the back window, I saw it around 3:30pm on Wednesday, July 18th" can turn up results that not only show the path the vehicle took, but any previous or future drives past the cameras that the vehicle took.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Offenhauser Sales Corp (@offenhauserco)

The use of ALPRs is a fairly new technology being deployed across the country, but it comes with controversy.

There are those who are in favor of the technology, or at least indifferent - and there are those who don't support the idea of themselves being tracked constantly around their hometown, whether they're a criminal or not.

According to the website DeFlock.org, there are currently 124,683 known ALPRs mapped in the country through their site.

DeFlock.org

Currently, there are 98 cities that have either canceled, deactivated, or completely rejected the technology.

ALPRs In The Quad Cities

In the Quad Cities Area, there are around 120 of the ALPR cameras covering the metro and outlying areas.

Between the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas, a total of 150 cameras are in use.

Des Moines has around 240 ALPR cameras in its metropolitan area.