How to avoid Flock cameras

Step 1: Learn your local map

Open the camera map and search your address. Most people find the cameras sit at a handful of predictable spots: main intersections, entrances to subdivisions, highway on-ramps, and shopping-center exits. Spend five minutes and you'll know your area's layout. Check back monthly; new cameras get reported all the time.

Step 2: Route around, not through

For routine trips, a small detour keeps your daily pattern out of the database. DeFlock offers camera-aware routing that does this automatically. You don't need to avoid every camera every time; the goal is keeping your regular life, the daily school run and the weekly appointment, from forming a searchable record.

Step 3: Know what you're looking for

Flock cameras are easy to spot once you know the shape: a small gray or black camera about the size of a large water bottle, mounted on its own thin pole or clamped to an existing one, usually with a small solar panel above it and often near an intersection or entrance. They face traffic, not sidewalks.

Step 4: Report the ones you find

Volunteer reports are the entire reason the map exists. When you spot an unmapped camera:

• Note the location precisely, or drop a pin on your phone's map while you're there.
• Submit it through DeFlock's report form, which handles the OpenStreetMap tagging for you.
• If you edit OpenStreetMap yourself, tag a node with man_made=surveillance and surveillance:type=ALPR.

Report from the sidewalk or your car; there's no reason to touch anything. Photographing and mapping equipment visible from public streets is legal.

The honest limits

Avoidance only goes so far. The network grows every month, and one trip past one camera still lands in the database. The durable fix isn't a clever route; it's your town deciding not to fund the cameras at all. That fight is winnable, and it's what the action kit is for.