Auburn and Opelika have been under surveillance. You weren't asked.
Automated license plate readers are logging every vehicle in our community, including when you drive to work, drop your kids at school, or visit a doctor. This is what that means.
91 , updated to 98
ALPR cameras mapped in Auburn & Opelika (DeFlock Maps, October 2026)
15
cameras under contract in Opelika
Auburn's contracts with Alabama Power cover 7 (City records, 2026).
99.5%
of plates scanned have no connection to crime
Based on 2016-2017 national scan data.
277
communities have canceled or rejected Flock contracts nationally
and growing
Source: DeFlock Maps, October 2026. 98 ALPR cameras in the Auburn and Opelika area, about 95 percent of them Flock Safety. Previously 91 as of July 2026. Counts shift with the map viewport.
Source: DeFlock, deflock.org/council. Retrieved October 2026.
Source: Opelika City Council Resolutions 285-20, 371-23, and 111-24. Resolution 111-24 includes the 30-day data retention term.
Source: Records provided by the City of Auburn and the City of Opelika in response to Alabama Open Records Act requests, 2026.
Source: EFF, Maass and Lipton, 2021.
What is this?
Flock Safety is a private company that installs automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras on public roads. Every vehicle that passes is photographed, and the plate number, timestamp, location, and vehicle description are stored in a database. Opelika's contract sets retention at 30 days. Law enforcement agencies can query that database at any time, with few restrictions on who can search, why, or how often.
Opelika's city council approved its Flock contracts by resolution in 2020, 2023, and 2024. Auburn's contracts were signed by city staff beginning in 2020, and the records the City provided include no council resolution or meeting minutes approving them. Residents were not notified that this infrastructure was being installed, how the data is retained, or who can access it. Most people driving past these cameras have no idea they are being logged.
Here's what we know
The timeline
When each city started, how it grew, and what the contracts say.
Read more →
What the data does
Where your plate data goes, who can access it, and how long it's kept.
Read more →
When it goes wrong
Documented cases of false positives, wrongful stops, and misuse across the country.
Read more →
Other cities are saying no
277 communities across the country have canceled or rejected Flock contracts. Some acted after documented errors. Others acted on principle, deciding that mass surveillance of residents wasn't something they wanted to normalize before a mistake happened.
Auburn and Opelika don't have to wait for a wrongful traffic stop or a data breach to reconsider. The information is already available. The question is whether local leaders are willing to look at it.
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