Verified ALPR — vendor unconfirmed
Somerville is watched — we just can't confirm by whom.
Our records document automated license plate reader use in Somerville, Massachusetts recorded for Somerville Police Department, but they do not establish Flock Safety as the vendor. Separately, 13 individual ALPR camera locations mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors fall inside the municipal boundary, 4 of them source-tagged Flock Safety.
Agency
Somerville Police Department
Agency type
Police
Jurisdiction
Municipal
County
Middlesex County
State
Massachusetts (MA)
Vendor
ELSAG
The Somerville Police Department has automated license plate readers in operation since 2015.
Sources · record AOS008919
These entries document that an agency has been reported to use ALPR technology. They do not establish camera counts, exact locations, cost, retention periods or sharing policies unless the linked source says so.
Contracts, council minutes and records responses are the fastest way to fill in the blanks. Send us what you've found.
Everything on this page traces back to the records below. Where a record carries no linked document, we say so instead of filling the gap.
Deployment records come from the EFF Atlas of Surveillance ↗. Database last updated 2026-08-07.
13 mapped camera points inside the Somerville boundary, from OpenStreetMap contributors via the DeFlock ↗ dataset (ODbL). Each point links to its own OpenStreetMap record in the camera list on this page.
Camera points are matched to this municipality by point-in-polygon containment against US Census Bureau cartographic boundaries (2023) — the coordinate falls inside the municipal boundary. Containment is a statement about location only, never about ownership, operation, purchase or deployment.
Other Massachusetts communities with a record in our database — nearest by county first. Absence from this list is not evidence of absence.
Boston.com reports that three more Massachusetts towns ended their Flock contracts and another suspended use of the cameras, following resident pushback over privacy and alleged officer misuse.
Boston.comSep 1, 2026News reportingFlock Safety
The City Council passed four motions on Flock at a special meeting, one asking the mayor to have the city's cameras removed or covered while the program stays suspended and under audit. The system has been offline since an officer was accused of misusing it; those allegations have not been adjudicated.
The New Bedford LightAug 25, 2026News reportingFlock Safety
New Bedford's Flock system has been offline since Aug. 11, a day after a police officer was issued an emergency restraining order over allegations she used it to track a former girlfriend. The allegations are the subject of an ongoing inquiry and have not been proven.
The Standard-TimesAug 20, 2026News reportingFlock Safety
After Littleton voted in May to shut its Flock cameras down, police found the company had restored power to several of them without telling the town. The department powered them down remotely, cut officer login access, and ordered the units physically removed from utility poles. The episode raises the question of who actually controls a camera once a town says no.
The Boston GlobeAug 6, 2026News reportingFlock Safety
Camera counts, contract prices, retention and sharing policies are shown only where we found a primary source. Where they're missing, the information is not publicly verified — see the Flock Files for the documents we do have.
Data attribution
Portions of the surveillance deployment data on this site come from the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Atlas of Surveillance. atlasofsurveillance.org ↗ Are You Flocked? is independent and is not affiliated with the EFF or Flock Safety. Database last updated 2026-08-07.
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