Supervisors pause new Flock cameras
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has directed the Police Department to pause the installation of any new automated license plate readers from Flock Safety.
The Board Matter approved by the BoS on Sept. 15 calls for the board’s Safety and Security Committee to discuss the use of Flock ALPRs at its Oct. 20 meeting.
Local governments throughout the country have canceled their contracts with Flock Safety due to concerns from the public about privacy. The Arlington County Board voted on Sept. 15 to take down all Flock Safety equipment. In Alexandria, Mayor Aliya Gaskins has stated she wants the city to stop using the technology.
While the Flock cameras have helped police departments nationwide catch suspects and find stolen vehicles, they have also been used to support ICE actions against immigrants and surveil protestors. In some cases, police officers have used the technology to stalk former romantic partners.
Even when a jurisdiction establishes strict guidelines on the use of Flock ALPRs, the data is shared with other localities that don’t have accountability measures in place. According to DeFlock Fairfax, the police department shares its Flock data with over 160 other agencies.
Fairfax County Board Chair Jeffrey McKay said that while data from FCPD’s Flock ALPRs is permanently deleted after 21 days, that’s not the case in other places.
Related story: DeFlock Fairfax wants FCPD to take down its license plate readers
The Fairfax County Police Department says license plate technology is an effective law enforcement tool, and strong guardrails are in place to protect the public. FCPD operates 84 Flock cameras, as well as 712 Axon Fleet cameras installed on police cruisers.
Between Nov. 1, 2022, and Sept. 4, 2026, the FCPD says license plate readers have led to the arrest of 912 individuals and the recovery of 555 vehicles, 66 guns, and 57 missing persons.
The BoS is sending a draft letter to Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley seeking information on how the company is using data from ALPRs. Among other questions, the draft letter asks the company who owns, controls, and can access Fairfax County data; how interstate legal conflicts are prevented; and what Flock’s AI and advanced searches can actually do.
The latest technology from Flock uses AI to identify and track individuals and vehicles through their pattern of movement through a network of cameras in 6,000 communities, according to an article in Wired cited by Supervisor Jimmy Bierman (Dranesville). “This has gone a lot farther than simply tracking license plates,” he said.
McKay said the conversation about the county’s use of ALPRs should also include the use of the technology by private entities, such as homeowner associations and commercial property owners.
Supervisor Rodney Lusk (Franconia) agreed that strong guardrails are needed but said, “We have to look at this from both sides.” Without this technology, “there might be a number of crimes that we would not have been able to solve.” While visiting the FCPD Real Time Crime Center, he saw how data from a Flock ALPR enabled the police to quickly recover a Fairfax County resident’s stolen car, along with her dog and purse.
It’s a difficult issue, acknowledged Supervisor Walter Alcorn (Hunter Mill). “We’re entering into a world where a combination of digital feeds from cameras and AI opens up incredible potential for law enforcement, legitimate law enforcement, but it also opens up incredible potential for abuse.”
Strange that people would make such a big deal of this. Thousands of cars on the road. There car. What
about all of the security cameras everywhere. See what they purchase at the supermarket, there whole
person, credit, debit card. Shopping at the Hallmark store. To follow a criminal across Northern Virginia?
Flock shares all of that detailed data with anyone with a check. So if someone wanted to track people getting woman’s healthcare, voting for Democrats, or attending an No Kings rally, these could be used to do that. An easy way to conduct surveillance without a warrant. And the security of these cameras is so bad that you probably don’t even need that check.
arstechnica.com/security/2026/09/hackers-reveal-how-flock-cameras-really-track-cars-and-people/
Reality: After secretly approving FLOCK cameras the Arlington County Board (of Supervisors) met in secret this week and voted to remove them. No public discussion before the cameras were installed.
What the h3ll is going on here? We’ve had the Patriot Act in place for 25 years. Stop light cameras and speed cameras are everywhere. Meanwhile, FCPD is only seen when responding to accidents.
There is no real public discussion about anything. Our lives are being micro-managed to benefit every favored interest from manufacturers of surveillance cameras to manufacturers of unlicensed electric motorcycles. Never mind about us. We’re only nuisances to the Economic and Political Elites. They get to play while we pay, one way or another.
This is a mistake, the County may as well put up a sign on 395 where it says Virginia is for lovers. It should state “Virginia is for criminals!”
I don’t like these flock cameras either but our times necessitate more robust crime control technology if these are going to secure our safety: the police certainly cannot because they don’t patrol, they don’t ticket the exorbitant number of traffic violators and we have many pedestrian and vehicle accidents in Mason District.
So I agree with the Supervisor from Francolnia, yes we absolutely need to have better guard rails, but we also need to keep these flock cameras in place because the police status quo cannot handle the amount of crime in Mason District that has become prolific.
I would be interested in the number and type of FFX criminal cases that Flock cameras have helped resolve in Fairfax. Interesting that looking at the locations of the cameras, they seem to be mostly installed on private property (like the 7-11, Giant, and Home Depot). Are there statistics targeted to the crime at those corporate locations (before Flock and After)? I’m guessing those corporations wanted to fight shoplifting and signed agreements with Flock. Or did the county pay for these in agreement with these companies?
Would be interesting if Maryland starts using Flock to enforce their vehicle property tax/tag and licensing issue (as MD says a significant portion of persons (licenses) and vehicles are improperly registered to VA).
The people opposing these are the same people that wanted to force us to take the Covid shot – ponder that.