More than 150 law enforcement agencies across Virginia use automated license plate readers – more popularly known under the brand name of Flock Safety. But two cities have now rejected the company's gunshot detectors, and there's growing pushback against the license plate readers.
Last year the Virginia State Crime Commission surveyed all Virginia law enforcement agencies on whether they use automated license plate readers, more well-known as Flock cameras, although companies other than Flock Safety also make the devices.
Seventy percent of agencies responded, with nearly two-thirds reporting using license plate readers, mostly Flock. That includes not just cities, but rural communities like Floyd County, home to fewer than 16,000 people.
In late June, more than a dozen residents showed up at the Board of Supervisors meeting to express their opposition.
"I'm speaking regarding the Flock cameras," said Deana Carr. "In my opinion, they're not needed in Floyd County."
Resident Jacey Clay also expressed opposition: "My concerns about Flock cameras are not rooted in the fear of technology, they are rooted in a firm understanding of what modern data systems are capable of doing. Tonight, I stand in opposition to Flock cameras and the broader expansion of AI-powered surveillance systems in our community."
Flock landed in Floyd through a 2023 grant application from the Floyd County Sheriff's Office, and led to the installation of four devices throughout the county.
But no longer: Sheriff Brian Craig told Radio IQ the cameras would be removed once the agreement ends this month.
Down the mountain in Roanoke, the city also uses license plate readers, and for a while tried out Flock Safety's Raven gunshot detectors.
But last month, city manager Valmarie Turner reported the devices had been placed in locations that differed from the originally approved list.
"Unfortunately, a preventable city process error resulted in an error that fueled public mistrust and entangled the city of Roanoke in larger privacy debate," Turner said.
As a result, they were abruptly removed and the contract canceled. Roanoke Police Chief Scott Booth says the city will still use license plate readers.
"I think it's an important tool, and we'll continue to try to use that in our community, but we also understand that we really have to safeguard and use it appropriately," Booth said.
Steven Keener, a professor and director of the Center for Crime, Equity, and Justice Research and Policy at Christopher Newport University, says both urban and rural communities are pushing back on license plate readers -- but for different reasons. For example, his team's research on Flock cameras in Hampton Roads.
"What our research found is, these cameras are heavily deployed in Black neighborhoods," Keener says. "The Blacker the neighborhood, the higher the poverty rate, the more cameras there are. That heavily resonates with resonates down there, is they feel like, 'Oh, this is the over-policing we've felt forever.' Now it's just happening in a tech-washed way. Whereas when we've shown up to more rural communities, and I think this speaks more in a place like Floyd, the concerns are more about privacy."
What residents in both urban and rural communities are finding is, these license-plate readers were often approved behind closed doors.
"What seems to be happening is the contracts are done without public input, and then the cameras are put up, and then people starting to notice these cameras around their community, and then they start learning about them, then they go advocate at city councils and town councils," Keener says. "What I think is the grossest part of all of this, I think this is very intentional from these private surveillance companies, if they put up the tech, the assumption is, it's here now, and we're just going to have to learn to live with it and regulate it."
Keener is among those helping lead the charge to shift that attitude. He'll be in Roanoke this Saturday, leading a community info session titled, "Mass Surveillance in Roanoke." That's noon to 2 pm at South County Library.
