License plate readers in Ames, IA
Volunteers have documented 39 automated license plate readers inside Ames. That is the 5th-largest total among the 24 Iowa cities indexed here, and 4.5% of the statewide total. Its 1.4 readers per square mile spread across 28.2 square miles — thinner coverage than 61% of the 2,395 cities indexed nationally. Every one of them is a Flock Safety unit. Volunteers also recorded non-government operators here, including Lowe's. Where a mount was recorded, volunteers logged 25 on poles and 5 on street lamps.
Checked against OpenStreetMap September 29, 2026 · figures last changed September 13, 2026.
39
readers documented
1.4
per square mile
5th
of 24 indexed Iowa cities · 602nd of 2,395 nationally
4.5%
of Iowa’s documented total
Dot colors follow the manufacturer legend below. Boundary: U.S. Census Bureau, 2025 Cartographic Boundary Files. Locations: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
What volunteers recorded
- Monitoring public roads
- 34 cameras are tagged as watching public streets or traffic.
- Recorded operators
- Iowa State University Police Department (24), Lowe's (3), Story County Sheriff's Department (1). All 720 recorded ALPR operators, ranked →
- How they’re mounted
- pole (25), street lamp (5), traffic signal (1)
- Coverage area
- 28.2 square miles of land inside city limits.
Nearby
Learn more: How to spot a Flock Safety camera · How ALPRs work · Can you opt out? · How state ALPR laws compare
These locations were documented in the field by OpenStreetMap volunteers and refresh automatically every six hours. They are evidence of where cameras have been seen — not a complete or official inventory, and cameras may have been added or removed since documentation. Corrections happen upstream: edit OpenStreetMap and this page will update. Read more in our methodology, or download the aggregates in bulk.