We need to target public (cities) as well as private Flock organizations to stop the scourge
The community is doing a MASSIVE job mapping Flock cameras and other ALPR's on OpenStreetMap, but information on WHO actually operates them is mostly missing.
We know major chains like Lowe's and Home Depot, as well as local HOAs, are heavily deploying these but on the map, private cameras look identical to municipal police units.
To support this in my screenshot you can see:
- Lowe's camera: Properly tagged as private/Lowe's.
- Roadway cameras: Mapped as Flock Safety ALPRs, but marked as "OPERATOR UNKNOWN" as there is no operator information.
For anyone trying to avoid businesses feeding into private surveillance networks, this missing metadata is the main bottleneck.
Questions for the community:
- OSINT & Verification: What are your best methods for tying a physical camera node to a specific business vs. city contract? (Public procurement logs, FOIA requests, physical stickers/markings, HOA meetings?). I have tried FOIA request but they seem to get slow rolled.
- OSM Standards: Should we focus purely on populating
operator=*with the specific business name (e.g.,Lowe's). How does a person updating this know? A camera in a Lowes parking lot is probably a safe guess but telling an HOA vs City Police is another story - Workflows: What features or field-mapping tools can we build into apps to make filling in operator info quick while on the ground?
Looking for workflows, local success stories, or ideas on how to organize a community drive to get this filled in.
