How We Score Cities

Each city receives a surveillance report card grade from F to A+. The grade is based on a simple, weighted average of several transparency and harm-reduction criteria. Each criterion is scored between 0 and 1, then combined into a 0–100 score and finally mapped to a letter grade.

Criteria

• Total number of Flock cameras per resident – Fewer cameras per 1,000 residents earns a higher score.
• Disclosing the number of cameras – Cities that publish how many cameras they operate score higher.
• Transparency portal – A public transparency or accountability portal boosts the score.
• Data retention policy – Shorter retention periods are better. We treat 0 days as ideal and 365 days or more as the worst case.
• Disclosing camera locations – Publishing approximate locations of cameras improves the score.
• Auditable search logs – Having logs that can be audited by an independent body improves accountability.
• Disclosing data-sharing partners – Cities that list which agencies they share data with get a higher score.
• Total number of data-sharing organizations – Fewer organizations with access is better; a very large number of partners reduces the score.

Weights and thresholds

Each criterion has a weight that reflects its importance. By default we give extra weight to camera density and data retention, because they directly affect how much data is collected and for how long. All of the weights together add up to 1 so the final score is easy to interpret.

We convert the weighted 0–1 score into a 0–100 number and then into a letter grade using this scale:

• F: 0–19
• D: 20–39
• C: 40–59
• B: 60–79
• A: 80–94
• A+: 95–100

When we do not know

Many cities publish nothing about their cameras. When we have looked for a figure and not found it, the report card shows Unknown, and that criterion scores zero, the same as the worst answer. A city that keeps its program out of public view is graded on what the public can see.

Every Unknown has a ? next to it. Hover or tap it to see which sources we checked for that city and when, including the ones that turned up nothing. Each city page also lists those sources in full. If you know where a city publishes something we marked Unknown, tell us and we will update the card.