Help map the cameras
Every camera on our map was put there by somebody who noticed one and wrote it down properly. This is how to be one of those people — and how to do it without producing a node that has to be cleaned up later.
How the data works
FlockDetour does not run its own camera database. The map reads OpenStreetMap, the same open dataset that every other project in this space reads, which has a consequence worth being upfront about: a camera you add does not become ours. It becomes everyone's, including projects that compete with us. That is the correct arrangement. A surveillance map behind one company's login is one acquisition away from disappearing.
It also means the quality bar is not ours to set. OpenStreetMap asks that anything in it be verifiable — that another person standing where you stood would record the same thing. Everything below is downstream of that one rule.
Before you go anywhere
- Stay on public ground
Photographing something plainly visible from a public street is a constitutional right in the US, and the ACLU is unambiguous about that. It is equally unambiguous that the right to photograph is not a right to break other laws — trespass to get a better angle and you can still be charged with trespass.
- Never touch the equipment
Observe, note, photograph, leave. Interfering with, obstructing or damaging a device is a crime, it is not what this project is for, and it discredits everyone doing the careful version of this work.
- Mind the traffic more than the camera
Most of these sit at busy intersections and on-ramps. Pull over somewhere legal and safe first. Do not stand in a shoulder or read your phone in a live lane to get a bearing.
- Skip people's homes
This project documents government and commercial surveillance aimed at public roads. A neighbor's doorbell camera pointed at their own driveway is not that. The OSM community is genuinely split on residential cameras; staying out of the argument by only mapping public-facing infrastructure is both easier and kinder.
What to record while you're there
Six things. The first two are what separate a useful node from a dot on a map, and the rest are cheap to note now and impossible to recover once you have driven away.
- The exact position
Which pole, not which block. A node fifteen metres off can put a camera on the wrong side of an intersection and change every route calculated around it.
- The direction it faces
The single most valuable field, and the one most often left blank. A reader aimed at inbound traffic and one aimed at outbound are different facts about your street.
- What kind of device it is
A plate reader, a general-purpose camera, or something else. If you are not sure, record it as a camera rather than guessing at a plate reader.
- The manufacturer, if you can read it
A decal or a housing you recognize. If you cannot tell, leave it out — an unlabeled node is far better than a wrong attribution.
- The mount and the power
Own pole or existing structure; solar panel or cable to the ground. Cheap to note while you are there and impossible to recover later.
- A photo, for your own verification
Not required by the database, but it lets you check your own tags afterwards and settle a disagreement if someone questions the node.
Not sure what you are looking at? The identification guide covers the difference between a reader, an enforcement camera and a gunshot sensor.
The tags
OpenStreetMap describes things with key-value tags. These are the ones that matter for surveillance equipment. Worth knowing which is which: the base tag was approved by community vote in 2008, while several of the detail keys come from a draft proposal that was never formally ratified. They are in wide use and worth filling in — they just do not carry the same standing, and no guide should imply otherwise.
- man_made=surveillanceRequired · Approved by community vote, 2008
Declares the node a surveillance device. Nothing else works without it.
- surveillance:typeRequired · De facto standard
What is watching: camera, ALPR, guard, gunshot_detector. Use ALPR for a plate reader — the wiki lists camera:type=ALPR as an incorrect alternative to be corrected.
- surveillanceOptional · De facto standard
The kind of area watched: public for a street or plaza, outdoor for a lot or entrance, indoor for inside a building.
- camera:directionOptional · In use
Degrees clockwise from north, or a compass abbreviation. A hyphenated range describes an arc a moving camera sweeps.
- camera:typeOptional · In use
fixed for a device that cannot move, panning for one that rotates, dome for a PTZ under a dark cover.
- camera:mountOptional · From an unratified draft
pole, wall, street_lamp, traffic_signal, ceiling, building.
- surveillance:zoneOptional · De facto standard
The purpose of the area. traffic is the convention for roadside plate readers.
- manufacturerOptional · Standard key
The vendor name, spelled the way everyone else spells it — see the identification guide for the exact values.
- operatorOptional · Standard key
Who runs it, if you actually know — a police department, a homeowner association, a business. Do not guess.
- man_made=surveillance
- surveillance:type=ALPR
- surveillance=public
- surveillance:zone=traffic
- camera:type=fixed
- camera:direction=<degrees>
- manufacturer=<vendor>
How to submit
The OpenStreetMap web editor
Best if you are at a computer with notes and photos from a trip.
- Create a free OpenStreetMap account — everything below needs one, and it is the account that owns your edits.
- Find the exact spot on the map and zoom right in. Background imagery helps you place the point precisely; it is not a substitute for having seen the device.
- Choose the Point tool, click the location, then search the preset box for “surveillance”, “ALPR” or “CCTV” and pick Surveillance Camera.
- Fill in the direction using the compass control, then the remaining fields you noted in the field.
- Save, write a plain changeset comment saying what you added and that you surveyed it in person, and upload.
A mapping app on your phone
Best while you are actually standing there.
- Install a surveillance-mapping app that writes to OpenStreetMap — DeFlock publishes an open-source one for iOS and Android.
- Sign in with your OpenStreetMap account. The app uses OSM's own authorization flow, so it never handles your password.
- Drop a node, drag it onto the exact pole, and set the direction with the field-of-view control.
- Pick a device profile if the app offers one — it fills in the vendor tags correctly so you do not have to remember them.
- Submit. Uploads can take a while to appear; check your changesets on openstreetmap.org before submitting the same camera twice.
Rules and limits
Two things get contributions reverted more than anything else. The first is copying from a commercial map — Google Maps and Street View are copyrighted, and their terms forbid extracting content into another database. Your own eyes are the source; background imagery in an editor is only there to help you place a point you have already seen.
The second is mapping what you assumed rather than what you observed. A node you are unsure of is worse than no node, because somebody will route around a camera that is not there and trust a road that has one. If you are not certain, leave the field blank. Blank is honest; wrong is not.
Bad edits are handled by OpenStreetMap's own community rather than by us — changesets are public, mistakes get discussed and reverted, and deliberate vandalism goes to a volunteer working group. Simple errors are not treated as vandalism, so a well-intentioned mistake is not something to be afraid of.
Other projects in this space
Other people map this too, and for some questions they are the better answer. Since everything above feeds a shared dataset, a camera you map improves all of these at once:
- DeFlock
The largest volunteer ALPR map, plus an open-source mobile app for submitting cameras and a running tally of towns that have canceled contracts.
- Atlas of Surveillance
EFF and the University of Nevada, Reno. Maps which agencies use which surveillance technology rather than where individual devices sit — better when your question is about a department instead of a street.
- Have I Been Flocked?
Searches audit logs released through public records requests to show whether a plate was looked up. It answers a different question than a map does.
- OpenStreetMap
The dataset underneath all of the above, including ours. Editing it directly improves every project on this list at once.
- OpenStreetMap — surveillance tagging— the reference for every key on this page
- OpenStreetMap — man_made=surveillance— the base tag and the 2008 proposal that approved it
- OpenStreetMap — verifiability— why a node has to be something anyone could go and check
- OpenStreetMap — don't copy from other maps— why Street View is not an acceptable source
- OpenStreetMap — limits on mapping private information— the community's line on residential detail
- ACLU — photographers' rights— what you may photograph in public, and what that does not cover
- DeFlock— the community project whose app writes to the same dataset