If my tax dollars are paying for it then I deserve to see it. This is public. I don't have a choice but to be surveilled so they shouldn't have a choice but to make it public.
this post was submitted on 01 May 2026
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People need to start physically intervening in the operation of these things. I think I saw a report once about a group in the UK that would attack cameras. I think they called themselves Bladerunners.
If anyone wants to do a small bit to help: we track these on OpenStreetMap. If you see one, you can check through an editor like iD (the one built into the OSM website) to see if we document it yet, then add it if not. (If you don't know how and can't figure out how, you can also leave a note for someone else to find and address.)
The DeFlock website has an outstanding guide on how to add these cameras.
I can confirm this guide is accurate and very straightforward on the OpenStreetMap and Wikimedia Commons side. Unless I'm missing something, I think "Make sure you publish the image under a CC0 Waiver license" is an overcorrection. You're just linking to it on OSM, so the Open Database License shouldn't factor in. I speculate that line is an opinionated one and not related to a technical hurdle for using the image on OSM. CC0 could theoretically be better depending on how downstream users want to use it for e.g. activism – that is, if they want to download the image from Commons and redistribute it. I just don't know what context that would happen in.
Can I do that from the iOS app? And which iOS app do I use?
Go Map!! is the most popular editor for iOS. Likewise, Vespucci for Android (Street Complete also exists for Android, but its functionality is intentionally very restricted to very basic tasks for beginner-friendliness).
Go Map!! supports arbitrary tag values, so there's no reason it wouldn't be able to map them. How easy that would be, I don't know; I've never used it, as I'm on Android.
I seem to remember hearing about a town that installed cameras to ~~spy on citizens~~ monitor for crime and took them all down again when a judge enforced freedom of information legislation. That is, the public requested access to what the cameras recorded and were found to be entitled to it.
It's not true that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, but the converse is true. And dirty cops reeeally don't like it.
Asymmetric power is where it's at.
It's no fun when both sides have full access to all the toys.