Data Sources

Every claim on this site traces back to one of the following sources. We never publish a figure we cannot point to a record for.

• Public records requests (FOIA / CPRA / FOIL / PIA / Sunshine)

  We file and track public records requests in all 50 states. Responses and partial responses become the foundation of city dossiers.

  Reference: /guides/how-long-police-keep-alpr-data

• OpenStreetMap (Overpass pull)

  Camera nodes tagged with `man_made=surveillance` + `surveillance:type=ALPR`. Our weekly GitHub Actions workflow (`.github/workflows/sync-osm.yml`) pulls 8 lat-bbox extracts via the Overpass API (5 continental-US bands + Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, USVI) and aggregates feed the home page HUD (~117K cameras as of Sep 2026) and per-state / per-metro counts. Each individual OSM node is also persisted to `alpr_cameras` so city dossier pages render a pin map; every pin has its own dossier at `/state/[state]/[city]/camera/[osmId]`.

  Reference: https://www.openstreetmap.org

• FlockLeaks 2024

  A leaked dataset of internal Flock Group Inc. documents published in 2024. We treat it as a lead-generation source, not as a primary record.

• Local journalism

  Investigative reporting from 404 Media, MuckRock, and regional outlets. Citations appear inline next to every claim.

• United Kingdom ANPR (planned, not yet live)

  UK ANPR networks (police forces and Highways Agency) are tracked primarily through UK Freedom of Information disclosures, not OpenStreetMap. OSM has fewer than 5 ANPR-tagged nodes in the UK as of Sep 2026, so importing them would publish a misleadingly empty map. We will add UK coverage in V0.6 once we have a UK FOI pipeline and an explanation of the differing UK legal framework.

• State statute and case law

  State-level ALPR laws (e.g. Texas SB 1405, California CPRA) and ACLU case trackers feed the State Spotlight pages.

• Community submissions

  Tip line submissions are verified against at least one secondary source before they appear on a dossier.