Flock Safety cameras are in the news once again, after two Virginia residents allege that Norfolk and its Chief of Police are conducting unconstitutional surveillance of drivers in the city.
The plaintiffs, Lee Schmidt, a retired Navy veteran who lives in Norfolk, and Crystal Arrington, a home healthcare worker who lives in Portsmouth, find the surveillance “deeply disturbing,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed by the Institute for Justice, which aims to protect people from warrantless mass surveillance through its Plate Privacy Project.
“They [Flock cameras] can tell when you’re driving to work, picking up your kids from school or going to a doctor’s appointment, and many residents aren’t happy about it,” said Dan King, communications project manager for Institute for Justice in a video posted on its website. “These cameras are different from a red-light camera or speed camera, which are triggered by a specific violation. They watch every car that drives by.”
Schmidt and Arrington had automated license plate reader cameras, or ALPRs, log both their movements hundreds of times from Feb. 19 to July 3. The lawsuit states that Schmidt’s license plate was captured 475 times, and Arrington’s license plate was recorded 324 times.
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Schmidt believes the cameras are intrusive.
“I don’t like being tracked every day.”
“When you drive by them, it’s not just a snapshot of your license plate number, it reads the demographics of your vehicle … It can build a profile of where you’ve been, and that tracking ability is quite nerve-wracking.
“With this lawsuit, I hope to end the illegal and unconstitutional surveillance. I hope that my kids don’t have to be illegally surveilled, and I hope that other people don’t fall into the abuses of the surveillance.”
The lawsuit argues that:
- The warrantless operation of the Flock cameras violate the Fourth Amendment
- The surveillance technology invades people’s privacy
- The cameras are an unreasonable search under the ordinary meaning test
The City of Norfolk began using Flock ALPR cameras in 2023 and has 176 ALPR cameras positioned throughout the city.
“It would be difficult to drive anywhere of any distance without running into a camera somewhere,” said Police Chief Mark Talbot, in a presentation that aired on Norfolk TV.
Norfolk has more cameras than any other locality in the state, according to the suit, and has a contract with Flock for $430,000 per year.
According to Norfolk’s Flock transparency page, 970,998 vehicles have been detected in the city in the last 30 days. There have been 2,110 searches conducted in the last 30 days.
Flock ALPRs are also used in Harrisonburg (30 cameras), Charlottesville (10 cameras), Staunton (six cameras) and Augusta County (two cameras). Waynesboro and Albemarle County do not have Flock cameras.
Flock Safety response on LPRs
Flock Safety cameras are installed in more than 5,000 communities in 47 states nationwide.
According to a statement from Flock Safety to AFP, “LPR technology has been challenged in appellate and federal district courts in at least 14 states, including in the 9th and 11th Circuits, and the overwhelming opinion is clear: LPR does not “track everybody’s movements” nor does it violate the 4th Amendment right to privacy.”
The case law, according to Flock, “states that LPRs do not constitute a warrantless search because they take point-in-time photos of cars in public and cannot continuously track the movements of any individual.”
Video: Institute for Justice case
Video: Breaking down the use of Flock cameras
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Crystal Graham
