Flock cameras & license plate readers in Birmingham, AL
Volunteers have mapped 510 fixed license plate readers within 10 miles of downtown Birmingham in OpenStreetMap, and 392 (77%) are tagged as Flock Safety cameras. That puts Birmingham at #21 of the 87 US cities we track for mapped plate readers near the city center. Widen the circle to 25 miles and the count is 1,010. Within 5 miles it's 256.
Who makes them
Manufacturers as tagged by mappers, within 10 miles:
| Manufacturer | Mapped | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Flock Safety | 392 | 77% |
| Axis Communications | 52 | 10% |
| Genetec | 36 | 7% |
| Motorola Solutions | 21 | 4% |
| Not tagged | 6 | 1% |
| Neology, Inc. | 3 | 1% |
Who runs them
7 of the 510 mapped readers (1%) have an operator recorded. 331 are tagged as public (government) cameras and 6 as private, such as store parking lots or HOAs.
- The Home Depot: 6
- Mountain Brook Police Department: 1
Where they're mounted
Where mappers noted a mount, cameras sit on poles (55), street lights (9), power pole (1) and post (1). 99% have a mapped facing direction, which our route check uses to estimate whether a camera faces your direction of travel.
Other cameras mapped nearby
- Public/outdoor CCTV: 2
- Traffic-monitoring cameras: 4
- Speed/red-light cameras: 0
Check a Birmingham route
See how many mapped readers sit on a specific drive:
Alabama license plate reader law
Administrative rules under §41-9-620 require a written, public policy, ban sale of the data, require access logs, and set a five-year retention period. Source: NCSL, Automated License Plate Readers: State Statutes (summary, not legal advice; check the statute itself).
To find out which agencies around Birmingham use ALPRs, search the EFF Atlas of Surveillance or follow our records-request guide. Spot a camera that isn't on the map? Add it via DeFlock.
Nearby city maps
- Huntsville, AL: 146 within 10 mi (85 mi away)
- Chattanooga, TN: 92 within 10 mi (136 mi away)
- Atlanta, GA: 1,323 within 10 mi (140 mi away)
All of Alabama → · All city maps → · What are Flock cameras?
Frequently asked questions
How many Flock cameras are in Birmingham, AL?
As of October 29, 2026, OpenStreetMap has 392 Flock Safety cameras mapped within 10 miles of downtown Birmingham, out of 510 mapped license plate readers in total. Mapping is volunteer-driven and incomplete, so treat this as a minimum, not an exact count.
Where are the license plate readers in Birmingham?
Open the live map of Birmingham on this site to see every mapped reader as a red dot. Zoom in for street-level positions, and toggle CCTV, traffic and speed-camera layers. Positions come from OpenStreetMap volunteers and may be off.
Is it legal to use license plate readers in Alabama?
Administrative rules under §41-9-620 require a written, public policy, ban sale of the data, require access logs, and set a five-year retention period. (Summary of NCSL's state-statutes table; not legal advice.)
Can this tell me if my car is being tracked in Birmingham?
No. It shows where mapped cameras are. It can't see whether a camera captured your plate or whether anyone searched for it.
How we count: OSM nodes tagged surveillance:type=ALPR within a straight-line radius of the city coordinates (33.519, -86.810), from the October 29, 2026 snapshot. Circles overlap neighboring cities. Method and limits.
Protect yourself
Shrink the rest of your data trail
Data-broker removal
Private payments
Encrypted connection
All privacy tools and what they do (and don’t) protect →
Disclosure: Some of these may become affiliate links, meaning we could earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That never changes the counts or scores. We list legal privacy tools only. We will never promote plate covers, plate-obscuring products or anything meant to evade police, and none of these tools stop license-plate readers.