17 Nov, 6 PM, at CNU: “The Road to Mass Surveillance.” Dr. Steven Keener on AI plate readers. New room: Luter Hall 121.

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DEFLOCK
Newport News · Virginia
Virginia

Thirty Virginia localities have walked away

Since October 2025, thirty Virginia cities, counties and towns have ended, paused or refused Flock's plate readers, twenty-seven of them since July 2026. Most were sheriffs and small towns; the biggest was Henrico, with 122 cameras. None is in Hampton Roads. Every one is listed below with its date and the reporting, followed by the record of misuse, here and elsewhere, that keeps adding to the list.

October 2025 – October 2026

The count

A locality is on this list if a council, board, sheriff or police chief ended, suspended or blocked its plate readers and a news report dates the decision. Pauses are counted and labeled as pauses. A pause can be reversed, and some will be.

30
localities have ended, paused or blocked Flock plate readers
19 ended or are ending a contract, 9 suspended their cameras or new installations, and 2 voted the cameras down before they went up. Twenty-seven of the thirty acted after 1 July 2026.
Table below, one source per row
122
cameras in Henrico, the largest Virginia network to quit
The county ended its contract within a week of announcing it, at no penalty, because its agreement allowed that. Richmond's mayor said four days later that the city would not renew.
WHRO/VCIJ, 7 Oct 2026; WTVR, 10 Oct 2026
0
of them in Hampton Roads
The region has several of the state's largest Flock networks. On 13 October Norfolk's leaders said its program is staying. Newport News's council has never taken the question up.
WHRO, 7 and 13 Oct 2026
~3,000
immigration-related searches of Virginia's Flock network in one year
Found in the audit logs of just two small agencies, Bridgewater and Mecklenburg County. Roughly nine in ten were run by police in other states. Bridgewater has since voted its cameras out.
Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism, 24 Sep 2025
DateLocalityWhat happenedSource
14 Oct 2025Warrenton (town)Blocked. Council voted 5–1 to permanently end consideration of the police department's Flock proposal and moved the money elsewhere.FauquierNow
15 Dec 2025CharlottesvilleEnded. Let its one-year pilot expire and took the cameras down. The police had already cut the system off from every other agency in June 2025; council's worry was where the data could end up anyway.29News
22 Dec 2025StauntonEnded. The police chief, city manager and council cancelled jointly after Flock's chief executive emailed the chief that the company's critics were “the same activist groups who want to defund the police.” The city said that “does not reflect the city's values.” Terminated in January.WHSV, WHSV
11 Jul 2026Bland CountyEnded. The sheriff stopped using the cameras and put in a work order to have Flock remove them.WSET
Jul 2026Carroll CountyEnded. The sheriff let the contract expire in July without renewing it.WSET
20 Jul 2026Elkton (town)Ended. Council voted unanimously to remove its cameras after weeks of public debate, though the police defended them.WHSV
28 Jul 2026HarrisonburgEnded, then banned. Council voted 4–0 to terminate; the cameras came down in August. On 22 September council took up an ordinance barring the city from buying or operating plate readers at all, which a future council could undo only through two readings. The Breeze reports it passed; the city's minutes are still in draft.29News, WHSV, The Breeze
14 Aug 2026Henry CountySuspended. The sheriff cut off access to all 14 cameras over privacy and constitutional concerns and said they would be taken down. The contract runs to 2028.WSLS
25 Aug 2026Christiansburg (town)Ended. Council voted 6–0 to terminate and remove. By 23 September every camera in town limits was down except one, bagged pending removal. Councilwoman Johana Hicks: “we don't trust the data collection, we don't trust the system.”WSLS
26 Aug 2026Giles CountyEnded. The sheriff terminated the contract.WSET
27 Aug 2026Goochland CountySuspended. The sheriff suspended use, citing community input and the “evolving legal landscape.” The first Richmond-area locality to stop.WTVR
28 Aug 2026Halifax CountySuspended. The sheriff paused the fixed cameras.WSET
1 Sep 2026Charlotte CountySuspended. The sheriff suspended use until residents get more information.WSET
1 Sep 2026Wythe CountyEnded. The sheriff ended the contract.WSET
1 Sep 2026Dumfries (town)Blocked. Council voted 4–2 to pull the eight cameras the town had planned to switch on; none goes back up without another council vote. Mayor Derrick Wood: “Residents asked for a greater voice in how this technology is used, and council listened.”InsideNoVa/WTOP
2 Sep 2026Wytheville (town)Suspended. The police department suspended use.WSET
2 Sep 2026Appomattox CountySuspended. The sheriff suspended the contract after questioning how Flock stores and handles the data.WSET
2 Sep 2026Campbell CountyEnded. The sheriff terminated the contract.WSET
3 Sep 2026Amherst CountySuspended. The sheriff switched off all four cameras.WSET
3 Sep 2026Bedford CountySuspended. The sheriff shut down the cameras and software “until further notice.”WSET
3 Sep 2026LynchburgEnded. Council voted 6–0 to end the contract. Police had switched the 15 cameras off on 19 August; they come out when the term ends next spring.WSLS
8 Sep 2026Bridgewater (town)Ended. Council voted unanimously to terminate immediately, remove all five cameras, and bar any plate reader from going back up without a public process first. Bridgewater's own audit logs had exposed the immigration searches below.Rocktown Now
10 Sep 2026MartinsvilleEnding. The police chief will not renew when the contract for 41 cameras expires on 31 December. Until then only supervisors may search, only for homicides, serious violent crime and missing people, and data is kept seven days instead of 21.Cardinal News
15 Sep 2026Arlington CountyEnded. The county board voted to discontinue Flock and ordered 41 cameras off public property within 14 days.WHRO/VCIJ
15 Sep 2026Fairfax CountySuspended new installations. Supervisors voted unanimously to stop new cameras pending a privacy review, after “hundreds of emails” from residents. The 84 existing cameras still run; a committee debated the program on 20 October without a vote. Separately, on 24 September the school board voted 12–0 to ban plate readers from all school property.FFXnow, WTOP, NBC4
1 Oct 2026Montgomery CountyEnded. The sheriff suspended the cameras on 3 September and, after a month's review, terminated their use.WDBJ
6 Oct 2026Henrico CountyEnded. The police division terminated its contract for 122 cameras within a week, at no cost. Board chair Roscoe Cooper: “Ending this contract is the right thing to do for our residents and community.”WHRO/VCIJ, WVTF
7 Oct 2026Damascus (town)Ended. Council voted unanimously to end its three-camera contract after a petition drew close to 300 signatures, though the mayor and police chief wanted to keep it.Cardinal News
10 Oct 2026RichmondEnding. Mayor Danny Avula said the city will not renew when the contract comes up in July 2027. With Henrico gone, he said, “Flock specifically is now less useful as a tool.”WTVR
13 Oct 2026Nelson CountyEnded. The sheriff discontinued the cameras and terminated the contract, effective immediately, days after a town hall.WDBJ

Checked 25 October 2026. Left off: Floyd County and the Augusta County sheriff, where we found no dated report of what changed; King William County, which cancelled after its cameras were vandalized and stolen, not over policy; and Alexandria, whose mayor has said there is no “role for Flock in this community” but which has not acted. Roanoke voted to remove some Flock gunshot sensors, not plate readers. Know of one we've missed? Send it with a link.

What lasts

Cancelling is good. A rule is better.

A cancelled contract can come back with the next budget, the next council or a new vendor. These places also changed the rule, so the next contract has to come through the front door.

Harrisonburg: a ban in city law

After the cameras came down, council moved its policy into an ordinance barring the city from buying, installing or operating plate readers. Undoing it takes two public readings. Mayor Deanna Reed: “there were people that these cameras were hurting.”

Bridgewater: no return without a public process

The vote that took down five cameras also bars any plate reader from going back up until the town holds a transparent public process first.

Warrenton and Dumfries: stopped before switch-on

Warrenton's council ended its police department's proposal for good, 5–1. Dumfries pulled eight cameras it had planned to switch on, and none goes back up without another council vote.

Fairfax schools: off-limits

The ninth-largest school division in the country voted 12–0 to ban plate readers from about 200 school properties. Vice chair Kyle McDaniel: “We are not a police department. We are an educational institution.”

“The public does not trust the Flock technology. … No amount of public education or transparency is going to stop the tidal wave.”
Martinsville Police Chief Chad Rhoads, to his department, September 2026 — Cardinal News
Misuse

What police have done with plate readers

The case for the cameras rests on audits catching abuse. In both Virginia cases charged so far, it was coworkers who raised the alarm. Most of the rest came out because reporters filed records requests, or because a victim worked it out herself.

In Virginia

  • Jul2025
    Five counties' Flock data used for immigration enforcementLogs showed about 50 immigration-related searches between June 2024 and April 2025 in Flock data from Fairfax, Chesterfield, Isle of Wight, Loudoun and Stafford counties, although Virginia agencies' posted policies prohibit immigration use. Isle of Wight is across the James from Newport News. Nationally, 404 Media found roughly 4,000 immigration-related searches in the same kind of logs.VCIJ, 2 Jul 2025
  • Sep2025
    Nearly 3,000 immigration searches of Virginia's network in a yearThe logs of just two agencies, Bridgewater and Mecklenburg County, recorded nearly 3,000 searches over twelve months using “ICE,” “ERO,” “immigration” or “deportee” as the reason. Roughly nine in ten came from police in other states. Inside Virginia the most came from the Warren County Sheriff's Office, which said it ran them because federal immigration authorities asked. Flock had acknowledged the month before that it was running “limited pilots” with Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations.VCIJ, 24 Sep 2025
  • Jan2026
    The state's own survey finds sharing the law doesn't allowThe Crime Commission found 13% of responding agencies giving out-of-state agencies standing access to their plate data and 6% giving it to federal agencies. Nearly a third of agencies didn't answer the survey.Crime Commission report
  • 28 SepMon · 2026
    James City County: an officer charged over searches on coworkersVirginia State Police charged a former officer with five felony and three misdemeanor counts of computer invasion of privacy and five counts of improper plate-reader use, over searches tied to an internal matter involving coworkers. A coworker raised it in March; he resigned in April. James City County is next door to Newport News.WYDaily, 30 Sep 2026
  • 2 OctFri · 2026
    Chesterfield: a civilian investigator chargedA civilian intelligence investigator was charged with two counts under the 2025 plate-reader law and two of computer invasion of privacy, after coworkers raised concerns that led to an audit in August.VPM, 2 Oct 2026

Elsewhere: the highlights

  • Oct2022
    Kechi, Kansas: a lieutenant tracks his estranged wifeHe used Wichita's Flock system to follow her movements. She told a friend she was scared and thought he was somehow tracking her; the friend's call to a Wichita officer exposed it. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor computer crime and stalking and got 18 months' probation.KWCH, 5 Apr 2023
  • May2025
    Johnson County, Texas: a nationwide search after an abortionA sheriff's office searched 83,345 Flock cameras on 6,809 networks across the country, logging the reason “had an abortion, search for female.” The sheriff called it a welfare check. Records later obtained by EFF show deputies had opened a “death investigation” of a “non-viable fetus,” and the search came more than two weeks after the abortion.EFF, 7 Oct 2025
  • Aug2026
    The Washington Post: dozens of officers stalking womenThe Post documented dozens of officers who used Flock to track women without their knowledge, among them a Georgia police chief who searched his ex-girlfriend's plate more than 500 times and messaged her about where she had been. Within two weeks Flock announced that by 1 January every search must carry a case number, and that data would by default be kept for seven days.Poynter, 14 Aug 2026
  • Jun–Oct2026
    Augusta, Georgia: seven sheriff's employees arrestedAt the Richmond County Sheriff's Office, which polices Augusta, a routine audit led to one deputy's arrest in June. By mid-October six more had been arrested and fired; the charges include misuse of license plate readers and violation of oath of office. The sheriff still says “the good outweighs the bad.”WRDW, 4 Sep and 15 Oct 2026
  • 23 SepWed · 2026
    Indianapolis: five officers chargedMarion County prosecutors charged five officers with fraud and official misconduct for misusing Flock, after Washington Post questions about thousands of suspect searches prompted an audit. The prosecutor: “A lot of this was initiated by The Washington Post.” The Post counts at least 100 police employees nationwide accused of abusing plate-reader access.AP/Washington Post, 23 Sep 2026
  • Aug2020
    Aurora, Colorado: when the hit is wrongA plate-reader alert flagged Brittney Gilliam's SUV as stolen; the stolen vehicle was a motorcycle. Officers forced her and four girls out of the car at gunpoint and handcuffed her and two of the teenagers. Aurora settled for $1.9 million in 2024.AP, 5 Feb 2024
Newport News

Every one of these was a decision someone made

A council voted, a board voted, a sheriff or a chief decided. Newport News runs 89 Flock plate readers, 50 Flock video cameras, eight drones and an Axon crime center that pulls in 932 live feeds, and its council has never voted on a contract for any of them, only on the budgets that pay for them and on grants for more equipment, which passed 7–0. It can end them at any meeting. The four levers and the dates → · Who is on the ballot →

Sources
  1. Each row of the table links its own source. Cross-checked against Cardinal News, At least 20 Virginia localities have pulled away from Flock Safety devices since July, 3 Sep 2026 — cardinalnews.org; WSET, Cities, counties in our area that have suspended, reduced use of Flock cameras, updated through 13 Oct 2026 — wset.com; and the DeFlock the USA cancellation tracker — deflocktheusa.com. Warrenton's vote: FauquierNow, 14 Oct 2025. Staunton's termination taking effect: WHSV, 10 Jan 2026. Wythe County: also WDBJ, 1 Sep 2026. Nelson County: also WSET, 13 Oct 2026. Harrisonburg's ordinance on the 22 Sep agenda as ORD 26-023: The River 95.3, 26 Sep 2026.
  2. Hampton Roads camera counts and the Norfolk rally: WHRO/VCIJ, Another Virginia county drops Flock surveillance, 7 Oct 2026 — whro.org; WHRO, Anti-Flock camera group rallies to push Norfolk to cancel contract, 13 Oct 2026 — whro.org
  3. Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO, Fed's hidden immigration weapon: Virginia's surveillance network, 2 Jul 2025 — vcij.org; Virginia surveillance network tapped thousands of times for immigration cases, 24 Sep 2025 — vcij.org, with a searchable database
  4. Virginia State Crime Commission, Law Enforcement Use of Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) Update, January 2026 — vscc.virginia.gov
  5. WYDaily, Former James City County officer charged with Flock camera misuse, 30 Sep 2026 — wydaily.com; VPM, Chesterfield charges, 2 Oct 2026 — vpm.org
  6. KWCH, Former Kechi police lieutenant convicted on stalking charges, 5 Apr 2023 — kwch.com
  7. Electronic Frontier Foundation, Deeplinks, on the Johnson County search records, 7 Oct 2025 — eff.org; 404 Media's original reporting, May 2025, and its follow-up — 404media.co
  8. Poynter, A Washington Post investigation prompts changes at surveillance company Flock, 14 Aug 2026 — poynter.org; The Washington Post, We found cops who misused Flock. Their police departments didn't know. — washingtonpost.com
  9. Augusta, Georgia: WRDW, ‘The good outweighs the bad’ with Flock cameras, Richmond County sheriff says, 4 Sep 2026 — wrdw.com; Another Richmond County deputy arrested for misusing license plate reader system, 15 Oct 2026 — wrdw.com
  10. The Washington Post via Anchorage Daily News, Prosecutors charge 5 Indianapolis police officers accused of misusing access to Flock cameras, 23 Sep 2026 — adn.com
  11. Associated Press, Family of Black girls handcuffed by Colorado police, held at gunpoint reach $1.9 million settlement, 5 Feb 2024 — clickondetroit.com