For the record and the many uninformed commenters:
The cameras are leased, not bought. $2500 to $3000 per camera per year.
The salary of one patrol cop, not including benefits, would cover the cost of 18 to 43 Flock LPR cameras per year. Possibly more for a large number of cameras on a volume contract. They are pretty cheap, low-end gear that even HOAs can afford, which is why they are popping up like weeds.
The early termination or removal fee for a Flock Safety License Plate Reader (LPR) camera is typically $500 per camera.
Flock has a zero replacement plan for stolen and vandalized cameras
The primary use for these cameras is to flag when a suspect plate is seen, not to query it. Querying the DB would mainly be to see which plates left a crime area for leads, like with any other security camera. Any query for location history of a plate is extremely suspect without a warrant connected to a case. And audit logs and role-based logins are part of the system.
The LPR cameras have a 15-foot-wide field of view at 65 feet, and are therefore only useful for monitoring narrow targets such as a lane of road, a doorway, or a path. 65 feet is the advertised maximum useful distance.
The Flock poles are breakaway models, so if you are seeing ones that are not, they are not official.
The cameras have 2GB of soldered RAM. Not the 64GB of DDR5 RAM being posted about.
Flock is just one maker of these kinds of cameras, and their LPR model is on the bottom end.
