EyesOffCR.org - Informing Cedar Rapids

Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) photograph every plate that passes, log the time and location, and feed it all into a searchable database. Cedar Rapids uses cameras from Flock Safety. See where they are, or read our hardware teardown of the camera itself.

No. Any plate that travels a public road gets captured. There is no opt-out list. That's why we focus on transparency, oversight, and policy change rather than individual workarounds.

Partly — and that's exactly where the argument gets twisted. The First Amendment does let any individual photograph or record what's visible from a public place. But there's a legal and moral gulf between a person who might glimpse your car and a tax-funded network that records every plate, tags it with AI, and cross-references it in a central database to build a pattern-of-life profile on everyone who leaves home.

The Supreme Court drew exactly that line in Carpenter v. United States (2018): "A person does not surrender all Fourth Amendment protection by venturing into the public sphere," and people have "a legitimate expectation of privacy in the record of [their] physical movements." Being seen once is not the same as being tracked, cataloged, and stored indefinitely. When a private party does that to one person, we call it stalking — doing it to an entire city by default doesn't make it acceptable. It inverts the presumption of innocence and surveils everyone without suspicion.

No. We don't condone any illegal activities related to Flock cameras.

• Destroying or vandalizing devices is a temporary "solution". The cameras just get replaced.
• It costs the taxpayer money. Flock charges for the replacement and actually makes money off the taxpayer.
• It gives Flock and friends something to point at while claiming anyone worried about privacy must be a criminal.
• It alienates the public. People will view that sort of behavior very negatively.

Your time and money can be spent on better things than legal fees, jail time, and lawyers. Please don't do crimes or encourage or glorify such actions. It's bad for you, the public, and this movement.

Plenty, and all of it legal. Contact your city council members, show up for public comment, file public records requests, and adopt an agency on our transparency portal. You can also spread the word with the documents and flyers on our media page.

Cedar Rapids approved a $499K Flock contract, and the FY2026 budget includes roughly $245K in annual surveillance spending across Flock, Vigilant, CLEAR, and Magnet Forensics. Explore the numbers yourself in our budget tool.