While Flock is the one that most of us know about, there are other ALPR vendors that are going under the radar. Axon, Motorola (formerly Vigilant), and Genetec are some of the major players while there are additional other small vendors.

In the Sacramento area, we have Flock, Axon, and Motorola being deployed. The table below shows the contract renewal dates based on PRA requests of the contracts from each jurisdiction.

JurisdictionFlockAxonMotorola
Sacramento CountyOctober 31, 2028PRA pendingPRA pending
Sacramento CityPRA pendingPRA pending
Elk GroveApril 5, 2028
Rancho CordovaDecember 1, 2029
FolsomMarch 28, 2027
(auto-renewal)
July 1,2030
Citrus HeightsOctober 1, 2027June 1, 2031March 30, 2027
(auto-renewal)

Axon

Axon is nearly a monopoly in tasers and police cameras. Its tools enable widespread surveillance of civilians and give the company huge influence over how policing is done. These systems include AI facial recognition.

Types of tech:
Fixed Equipment: Axon Outpost and Axon Lightpost (fixed smart cameras processing plate and vehicle attributes at the edge).
Mobile Equipment: Axon Fleet 3 dashboard and cruiser video systems (utilizes standard police car cameras to run dual-purpose ALPR scanning).
Specialized Equipment: Real-time software integrations through Axon Fusus to connect private and public security cameras. Also does tasers, body cams, and drones, evidence.com, Draft One, and Axon Fuses”

Motorola

Formerly Vigilant, “Motorola’s technology includes 911 services, radio, BWCs, in-car cameras, ALPRs, drones, face recognition, crime mapping, and software that supposedly unifies it all. Notably, video can also come with artificial intelligence analysis, in some cases allowing law enforcement to search video and track individuals across cameras.”

Types of tech:
Fixed Equipment: Reaper and M500 line (high-speed highway and intersection cameras with integrated illumination).
Mobile Equipment: Mobile Plate Hunter (MPH-900) systems (low-profile external camera pods mounted to standard agency patrol cars).
Specialized Equipment: Fixed covert deployment kits (concealed inside utility boxes or trailers) and integration into 911 dispatch networks.

Genetec

While Genetec isn’t as large as some of the others, it seems to be one of the smaller players gaining steam quickly. We are still doing more research into Genetec and will update this as things develop.

Types of tech:
Fixed Equipment: AutoVu SharpV (highly accurate fixed camera units combining multi-exposure sensors and built-in illumination).
Mobile Equipment: AutoVu SharpZ3 (advanced mobile unit featuring three optical sensors to read digital, embossed, or complex international license designs).
Specialized Equipment: AutoVu Cloudrunner (a solar-powered, cellular line built to compete directly with Flock’s quick-deployment model).

Additional Resources:

Beware the Bundle: Companies Are Banking on Becoming Your Police Department’s Favorite “Public Safety Technology” Vendor

Video: Tasers & Excited Delirium: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

The Private Companies Quietly Building a Police State

Axon’s Draft One Is Designed to Defy Transparency

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