Warrantless Wheels: The Dark Side of Virginia's New License Plate Tracking
- Jun 21
- 2 min read
In 2023, the Fairfax County Police Department began using Flock Safety License Plate Readers. Unlike normal traffic cameras, automated license plate readers (ALPRs) continually monitor all traffic to uniquely profile every passing vehicle and create an easily searchable history of its movements without a warrant. Flock gained national attention for its collection of over 80,000 cameras being used to:
Assist ICE’s immigration crackdown.
Stalk police officers’ ex-romantic partners.
Wrongfully target innocent people, including children, who were held at gunpoint.
Surveil activists at No Kings protests.
Track a Texas woman getting an abortion.
Tell an innocent woman, “You can’t get a breath of fresh air…without us knowing.”
When FCPD started using ALPRs, it claimed it did “not share information to federal authorities regarding their investigations into immigration enforcement.” However, audits from June 2024 to April 2025 reveal Fairfax County Flock cameras were used in over half of all immigration-related Flock searches in Virginia. A county representative denies this. Capt. Jesse Katzman said FCPD officers did not conduct these searches, but this could have happened because “We share our license plate reader system with 13 other agencies.” A FOIA request revealed that FCPD actually shares its Flock data with over 160 agencies.
Virginia passed a law in 2025 regulating ALPR usage, limiting data sharing and retention periods. In 2026, the Crime Commission released police departments’ self-reported Flock usage. A third of departments didn’t respond. Of the respondents using ALPRs:
35% haven’t promoted public awareness of ALPR usage, in violation of the law.
16% don’t have an ALPR policy, violating the law.
21% retain data for more than 21 days, in violation of the law.
13% share continuous ALPR data with out-of-state agencies, in violation of the law.
6% share continuous ALPR data with federal agencies, in violation of the law.
The report didn’t say which departments broke the law.
The report didn’t indicate any departments would face consequences.
Flock admitted to lying about sending data to immigration enforcement. Regulating Flock has failed, and its lawful usage relies on broken promises from the company itself.
Other Virginia police departments have terminated their Flock contracts. It’s time for Fairfax County to follow suit. It’s time to de-Flock.
In addition, a January 2026 report found that some Virginia law enforcement agencies using automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) have violated the July 2025 law. report-reveals-virginia-police-misuse-of-license-plate-reader-technolog
For more information, see: https://deflockfairfax.com/
To view the map of Flock cameras across the US, see: maps.deflock.org/ camera locations. Map locations can be enlarged for greater clarity in your local area.
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