Cameras / Iowa / West Des Moines
License plate readers in West Des Moines, IA
Volunteers have documented 69 automated license plate readers inside West Des Moines. That is the 2nd-largest total among the 25 Iowa cities indexed here, and 7.8% of the statewide total. Its density of 1.4 per square mile places West Des Moines near the middle of the 2,400 cities indexed nationally. Nearly all of them — 97% — are Flock Safety units. Volunteers also recorded non-government operators here, including Lowe's. Where a mount was recorded, volunteers logged 40 on poles and 9 on traffic signals.
Checked against OpenStreetMap October 9, 2026 · figures last changed September 30, 2026.
69
readers documented
1.4
per square mile
2nd
of 25 indexed Iowa cities · 282nd of 2,400 nationally
7.8%
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
- 69 cameras are tagged as watching public streets or traffic.
- Recorded operators
- West Des Moines Police Department (48), Lowe's (4). All 725 recorded ALPR operators, ranked →
- How they’re mounted
- pole (40), traffic signal (9), street lamp (7)
- Coverage area
- 47.5 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.