Visualizing Neighborhood Racial Disparities in Flock’s Surveillance Network across the United States

A growing body of sociological work documents neighborhood disparities in state surveillance. This data visualization expands on this work by mapping uneven patterns in the locations of Flock automated license plate readers (ALPR). I draw on crowdsourced data on the locations of 116,309 Flock ALPR cameras to describe the characteristics of census block groups (CBG) by camera density. These data provide an unprecedented view into the national distribution of police surveillance infrastructure. More than a quarter of Americans live in a CBG with at least one Flock camera. Furthermore, CBGs with more cameras have larger shares of racially minoritized residents. This uneven pattern is strongest in rural areas and largely absent in cities. These findings suggest that racially minoritized residents, particularly those in rural areas, may face disproportionate exposure to this growing network of algorithmic surveillance.