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Finding Flock

Cameras / Washington / Des Moines

License plate readers in Des Moines, WA

Volunteers have documented 19 automated license plate readers inside Des Moines. That is the 28th-largest total among the 62 Washington cities indexed here, and 0.8% of the statewide total. At 3.0 per square mile it is more densely covered than 74% of the 2,395 US cities indexed nationally. Not every operator recorded here is a public agency — volunteers also logged Safeway. Where a mount was recorded, volunteers logged 5 on poles and 5 on buildings.

Checked against OpenStreetMap September 29, 2026 · figures last changed August 9, 2026.

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  • 19

    readers documented

  • 3.0

    per square mile

  • 28th

    of 62 indexed Washington cities · 1,295th of 2,395 nationally

  • 0.8%

    of Washington’s documented total

Dot colors follow the manufacturer legend below. Boundary: U.S. Census Bureau, 2025 Cartographic Boundary Files. Locations: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Who makes them

Compare every ALPR manufacturer nationally →

What volunteers recorded

Monitoring public roads
6 cameras are tagged as watching public streets or traffic.
Recorded operators
Des Moines Police (10), Safeway (5), Normandy Park Police Department (1). All 720 recorded ALPR operators, ranked →
How they’re mounted
pole (5), building (5)
Coverage area
6.4 square miles of land inside city limits.

Nearby

Learn more: How to spot a Flock Safety camera · How ALPRs work · Can you opt out? · Washington ALPR law (21 days retention)

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.