In Virginia, Racism and Redlining Are Fueling a Flock Camera Backlash

City governments in Virginia are under installing pressure to cancel agreements for monitoring cams called automated license plate readers (ALPRs). On October 6, the Henrico County Police Division revealed that it would end its agreement for such cams after locals shared “genuine issues about Flock Safety.” In neighboring Richmond, Mayor Danny Avula stated on October 13 that the city would cancel its agreement with Flock Safety, the most popular purveyor of the electronic cameras, however did not eliminate utilizing ALPRs from a various business.

“It is an excellent primary step, however we do require to keep the pressure on the city to not immediately change to another ALPR supplier,” Richmond Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Victoria McCullough informed Truthout

DSA activists and homeowners in Richmond pressing cops to ditch the agreement have effective research study to indicate from in other places in the state. In the surrounding Hampton Roads area of Virginia, race and class are the main predictors of places where authorities set up ALPRs, a groundbreaking research study discovered previously this year.

The research study discovered authorities were most likely to set up ALPRs in bulk Black census systems in each of the 9 cities throughout the Hampton Roads area, an East Coast metroplex with 1.8 million homeowners and several cities, consisting of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. About 80 percent of bulk Black communities include a minimum of one electronic camera compared to less than 40 percent of bulk white systems. ALPR security is likewise more extreme in bulk Black areas, where usually there are 4 times as lots of electronic cameras than in white communities when weighted for population share.

In Virginia Beach, authorities released ALPRs in just 5 of 76 bulk white census systems (6.6 percent), compared to one of 2 Black census systems (50 percent). Black locals of the area are 7.6 times most likely than white locals to reside in a census system with a minimum of one ALPR. When weighted for the variety of cams released in each location, Black chauffeurs in Virginia Beach were approximately 8 times most likely than white chauffeurs to be routinely surveilled by Flock-style electronic cameras.

Released in January 2026, the research study discovered a “likewise constant pattern of out of proportion video camera protection” in low-income locations and concluded that ALPR implementation in Hampton Roads follows historic patterns of real estate discrimination, racist partition, and disinvestment. Simply put, authorities have actually released the video cameras so Black and lower-income individuals are most likely to live under modern, AI-powered traffic security than whiter, wealthier individuals.

Dr. Steven Keener is a co-author of the research study and director of the Center for Crime, Equity and Justice Research at Christopher Newport University. He indicated Norfolk State University in Norfolk, among just 5 traditionally Black institution of higher learnings (HBCUs) in Virginia, as an example of the increased security existence. The location around the university is greatly filled with Flock brand name ALPR cams, compared to whiter and higher-income locations of Norfolk, the research study discovered.

“The census system with the most ALPR cams surrounds Norfolk State, which is the only public HBCU in the area,” Keener informed Truthout in an interview. “The cams totally surround the school, so you can’t go into or leave in a lorry without being surveilled.”

Of the census systems with the greatest variety of ALPRs, 9 lie in Norfolk, where the electronic cameras are focused in traditionally Black areas and near public real estate. The ALPR information utilized in the research study was just readily available since a federal judge bought authorities to launch the records in November 2025 as part of a personal privacy rights suit submitted by 2 locals of Norfolk. Keener’s group utilized the information to draw up ALPR areas throughout Hampton Roads and compare the outcomes to Census information on race and earnings.

“Economic and social policy failures have actually resulted in your life being continuously surveilled,” Keener stated of lower-income and Black neighborhoods. “They’re still doing racialized security and policing, however rather of having an officer on the corner, they are viewing you to criminalize your habits based upon where you live.”

Throughout east Virginia, authorities released ALPRs near public real estate tasks where numerous lower-income Black homeowners live, showing Virginia’s history of redlining and other racist policies, according to Keener. Some real estate tasks are likewise surrounded by AI-powered “tsunami electronic cameras” that evaluate information on individuals along with cars by taping “360-degree video in ULTRA-high meaning 24/7,” according to one maker. The cams are run by the public real estate authority however frequently accessed by cops, according to reports.

That kind of monitoring reaches beyond the area for which the research study had information, Keener pointed out. “A reporter, Samuel Parker, in Richmond discovered that cops were enjoying individuals go into and leave their homes, utilizing tsunami cams to examine social networks posts,” he stated.

Keener and his group anticipate comparable outcomes to their research study in other parts of the nation if openness supporters succeed in pressing authorities to launch such information. Authorities normally combat to keep such information under covers– Richmond has actually declined to launch its information regardless of public protest over the innovation, pointing out the capacity for vandalism– and Keener understands of no other example of authorities launching ALPR place information in the United States.

Modern ALPR systems go far beyond taping license plates at a particular time and area. By catching pictures of each passing lorry and utilizing AI-powered software application to turn identifiers such as make, design, damages, and decal into searchable information points, networks of ALPRs enable authorities to quickly construct comprehensive profiles of a specific motorist’s motions or everyday regimen. The information is frequently fed into central, “real-time” monitoring centers where cops utilize AI and “predictive policing” software application.

“Predictive policing is this modern-day concept that, since we have all this information on where arrests have actually occurred … we can anticipate where criminal activity will occur and avoid it by focusing resources there,” Keener stated. “But there are a lots of incorrect positives where authorities misidentify locations and individuals.” Other critics state predictive policing innovation has actually shown to be both inefficient and a type of social control that enhances existing patterns of racist and classist policing.

“We are putting our tools up in a racialized way, so the information is going to be racialized,” Keener stated, in recommendation to his research study on ALPR places. “It looks tidy and without predisposition, however that is simply not the case.”

Predictive policing innovation likewise enables cops to wash or “tech-wash” racist policing methods to look like if they are based upon unbiased information, when in truth currently extremely policed neighborhoods are oversampled in the information that figures out which neighborhoods are targeted. The report explains a “self-fufilling prediction” in which extremely policed neighborhoods produce the information utilized to recognize targets for heavy monitoring in turn producing more information advising authorities to think about these neighborhoods as hazards.

“These electronic cameras might be extremely beneficial tools for administering fines and charges for ended tags and ended registrations that remain in high hardship communities,” Keener stated. “We are continuously taxing the bad in this system, and this is a clear manner in which the bad are going to be taxed.”

Flush with pandemic-era financing and federal grants, authorities departments throughout the nation have actually strongly bought other state-of-the-art monitoring innovation in addition to ALPRs, consisting of innovative AI-powered droneswithout speaking with the general public. The combination of facial acknowledgment innovation with these security tools in New Orleans and other areas has actually stimulated outrage, leading a handful of cities to prohibit or restrict its usage by authorities with exceptions for examinations into violent criminal activities.

The research study mentions reams of research study on the racial predispositions fundamental to monitoring tech algorithms, in addition to the unfavorable financial and psychological health effects individuals experience when living under racialized partition and state-of-the-art authorities monitoring. In interviews with Parker, citizens of Richmond real estate jobs explained stress and anxiety about being continuously on electronic camera.

“I believe it’s frightening … it wasn’t by mishap that these ALPR video cameras got set up without public input,” Keener stated.

The monitoring isn’t restricted to regional cops, either. Keener cautions that federal companies, consisting of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), are progressively accessing regional ALPR security information through “side doors” in spite of guardrails developed by state and regional policymakers.

“Essentially, a side door gain access to resembles the federal government, in this case, ICE, getting gain access to from friendly departments,” Keener stated throughout a current interview. “And that’s the most typical manner in which it’s taking place.” Investigative reporters discovered in 2015 that about 50 immigration-related searches were carried out throughout 5 Virginia counties in between June 2024 and April 2025, in spite of city governments disallowing using ALPRs for migration enforcement.

While the federal government might subpoena Flock Safety for the exact same information, given that the business likewise shops ALPR information for training AI designs, utilizing these “side doors” is a lot easier, Keener stated.

As the anti-surveillance battle warms up in Virginia, police has actually gone on the defensive in an effort to continue utilizing questionable ALPR tech. Ramin Fatehi is the commonwealth lawyer for Norfolk and entered workplace guaranteeing to lower mass imprisonment. He recommended individuals are misdirecting their aggravation with Big Tech towards Flock-style video cameras due to the fact that ALPRS are far more noticeable than information brokers working behind the scenes to hoover up and offer individual info online.

“That is what has actually drawn individuals’s ire; they can see the, which is where they are directing stress and anxieties that are completely affordable in the age of AI,” Fatehi informed Truthout“They are right, however they selected the incorrect target.”

Like others in police, Fatehi declares ALPRs are a “accuracy tool” for fixing cars and truck thefts, missing out on individuals cases, murders, and other felony criminal activities. He stated ALPRs can enhance the “clearance rate” for murder cases, or the portion of cases thought about dealt with by an arrest or “remarkable ways” such as the death of a suspect.

Reporters just recently utilized FBI information to figure out that the setup of Flock video cameras and other security gadgets in Atlanta, Georgia, did not significantly enhance the city’s clearance rates from 2021 to 2025. Last month, CBS News unmasked duplicated claims by Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley that the business’s ALPRs assisted authorities resolve “1 million criminal offenses” in 2025, which is not supported by offered proof. Inquired about the scandals surrounding ALPRs in other neighborhoods, consisting of lots of cases where polices utilized the cams to stalk femalesFatehi indicated a brand-new Virginia law that worked on July 1 and limits how authorities can gain access to, usage, and share ALPR information.

The law restricts storage of ALPR information to 21 days– unless authorities have “sensible suspicion” that a criminal activity has actually been devoted, a lower legal bar than the “possible cause” required to make arrests. Cars put on so-called “hot lists” can be carefully surveilled for longer than 3 weeks by networks that can extend far beyond where the motorist lives. “The reality that ALPRs go through abuse is a various method of stating that policeman are humans and a few of them will break the law,” Fatehi stated.

Fatehi likewise recommended that ALPRs may possibly decrease unsafe interactions in between police and Black and Brown homeowners. In a current murder examination, Fatehi stated cops utilized ALPRs to locate the suspect rather of pulling over lots of chauffeurs who matched a description. Take the scalpel away, and you “are entrusted to a meat cleaver,” he stated.

Keener disagrees, stating the Virginia law putting “guardrails” on ALPRs has no teeth. Lawbreakers amongst police face just misdemeanor charges, and enforcement of the law is efficiently left as much as the very same organizations it apparently controls.

A report released in early 2026 by the Virginia Crime Commission discovered lots of offenses of the law by authorities firms throughout the state, consisting of saving information past the 21-day time frame. A minimum of 21 cops departments or companies shared ALPR information out-of-state or with the federal government beyond allowed examinations, and 35 percent had actually not alerted the general public about an ALPR personal privacy policy as needed by the law.

Keener stated he is disappointed that chosen authorities keep indicating the law due to the fact that they understand it’s not working, and some state legislators have actually revealed strategies to present propositions for enhancing the law or prohibiting authorities ALPRs entirely

Keener likewise turns down the concept that cops would be required to pull over more Black chauffeurs if ALPR electronic cameras are removed. “Either we have ALPR video cameras or racist policing? Undoubtedly, it’s an incorrect option.”