A researcher published a huge Flock surveillance-device database

I came across this just now and thought it was worth sharing here:

https://flocksurveillance.org/

The site is based on a December 2025 snapshot of device-location data that cybersecurity researcher Joshua Michael says he obtained through an exposed/unauthenticated access path involving Flock Safety's ArcGIS infrastructure.

This isn't just a crowdsourced map of cameras people have spotted. The dataset reportedly contains information on hundreds of thousands of Flock-related devices nationwide, including cameras and other hardware, along with device types, internal names/status information, and geographic data.

Flock disputes characterizing the incident as a hack or leak and says its cloud environment/customer data were not breached. So one might describe this as: Flock-derived device data obtained through an exposed access path, rather than assuming a conventional database breach.

The Iowa angle is potentially interesting.

A number of Iowa law-enforcement agencies use Flock ALPR cameras, including agencies in the Des Moines metro as well as Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Council Bluffs, Iowa City-area institutions, and others. A historical vendor-side snapshot could potentially be compared against:

• city contracts and purchase records
• council agendas/minutes
• agency transparency portals
• right-of-way or installation permits
• stated camera/device counts
• renewal and expansion records

That doesn't mean every point on this map is currently active. The underlying data appears to be a December 2025 snapshot, so it should not be treated as a current deployment map. And a discrepancy between this database and public records wouldn't by itself prove wrongdoing. It would be a reason to look for the underlying records.

I'm particularly interested in whether the Iowa portion shows equipment, device counts, or deployments that aren't obvious from local public records.

If anyone here has already compared this with records from their own Iowa city/county contracts, council documents, transparency pages, etc. — I'd be interested in what you found.

Avoid posting private residential information or exact camera coordinates in the comments; instead compare the dataset with public government records.