Alexandria, Virginia, moves to shut down Flock cameras after council and community backlash

Alexandria, Virginia, officials announced Tuesday that they will deactivate Flock cameras and have the automated license plate readers completely removed by December.The city council first began discussing ending its contract with Flock Safety last month, with some council members objecting to having Flock or any similar technology in the city. Several other northern Virginia communities had already paused or canceled their contracts with the company at that time.Alexandria City Manager Jim Parajon announced the decision but noted that city staff will return in November to discuss guidelines for choosing any new surveillance technology. “The Flock cameras will be turned off,” Parajon said. “The staff will be coming back to the City Council on the Nov. 10 legislative meeting with some potential resolution for you to consider that really talks about guiding principles governing the evaluation of any potential new surveillance technology.”Mayor Alyia Gaskins said the decision came after residents expressed objection to the cameras and thanked the community for participating in the conversations. She said any future decisions on similar technology will need to involve the public as well.“I think what was very clear is that we heard from you that Flock as a vendor needed to be out, and that any process moving forward needed to have a clear path for involving the public as well as involving the City Council,” she said.City Councilwoman Sandy Marks, who previously spoke out against Flock and any similar contracts, asked whether the police department could put bags over the ALPRs to ensure they do not capture any additional data on residents. The method has been used by other municipalities concerned that Flock still operates cameras despite contracts being terminated.“If that’s what Council wants, we can certainly work towards trying to do that and bring it back to you if there’s a reason we can’t,” Parajon answered.FLOCK ISN’T THE ONLY PLAYER IN THE LICENSE PLATE READER MARKET — MEET ITS MOTOROLA RIVAL Alexandria is yet another example of a community terminating its contract with Flock after residents voiced their displeasure with the technology they view as impeding on their right to privacy. Neighboring Arlington and Fairfax counties have made similar moves as a result of community backlash.Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley, however, has disputed the idea that scrutiny of his company’s ALPRs is genuine. According to a leaked audio obtained by 404 Media, Langley told the International Association of Chiefs of Police that the public outcry is due to Russia injecting dissent, linking the decline in criticism to a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian data center.