The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Arlington County Board in Virginia have made major changes to their use of Flock cameras and technology.
The changes come as Flock cameras have been under scrutiny in the D.C. region and nationwide for the amount of information they collect without warning from people passing by.
In a public meeting Tuesday, Arlington County voted to discontinued the use of county-leased Flock Safety technology after a public meeting Tuesday.
The board directed the county manager to begin removing all of the equipment the county uses that is related to Flock. Board members also directed that all data “not required for active criminal investigations” to be “deleted in accordance with applicable contractual, legal, and operational requirements.”
In total, Arlington County has 41 Flock Safety cameras, 26 Falcon license plate readers and 15 Condor point-tilt-zoom cameras.
“This decision reflects concerns raised by Arlington residents regarding the use of Flock technology,” said Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti.
Board Member Julius Spain told the “Tech Rundown Podcast” that the cameras would come down within the next 14 days.
Spain said the board expects to share more with the public about where the cameras were located and what their purpose was during their meeting on Sept. 22.
“Effectively, immediately, our contract has ended with Flock. And the time when they’re going to come down, it may be Friday, it may be next week, but we were giving ourselves about a 14-day cushion,” Spain told podcast host Anna-Lysa Gayle.
Also on Tuesday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to pause the installation of any new Flock cameras by the Fairfax County police.
“Over the course of the last several weeks, our offices have received hundreds of emails from residents regarding the Fairfax County Police Department use of Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers, Flock ALPRs,” Fairfax County Board Chair Jeff McKay said. “This is occurring as part of a nationwide conversation where the utilization of Flock Safety technology for public safety objectives intersects with real privacy concerns.”
The pause does not impact the current cameras in use by Fairfax County police, it just stops new ones from being installed until a board committee meets on Oct. 20.
The Fairfax County police currently operate 84 Flock cameras.
“Public safety and public trust go hand in hand, and as such, Fairfax County must join this broader conversation as well,” McKay said.
He said that the Fairfax County police Flock cameras are “operated in a transparent manner, abide by all state and county codes, and are only utilized for legitimate law enforcement purposes.”
McKay added that they are subject to a 100% audit for searches entered.
He said to date, there have been no identified instances of misuse of the technology by Fairfax County police and he said they have been helpful in solving cases.
McKay said since November 2022, the Fairfax County police Flock ALPR program has resulted in helping to solve over 1,600 cases, including locating 57 missing persons, recovering 66 firearms, 2,633 arrest charges, and 555 stolen vehicles recovered with an estimated value of over $9 million.
D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto is seeking answers from the District’s police department about its use of Flock license plate reader technology, asking the D.C. police department 10 questions about the automated license plate reader system and requesting a response by the end of the business day Thursday.
Last week, Alexandria’s mayor said she wants the city to move away from using Flock Safety license plate readers amid growing concerns over privacy and how the cameras can be used to track people’s movements.
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