Five names on the Newport News ballot have already voted for police surveillance
Startpage's Privacy Ballot rates nine candidates in three Newport News races, and it has not yet reviewed a single city candidate. City council minutes fill much of that gap. Since 2020 council has approved six items that named surveillance equipment or powers, every one of them unanimously, and five people on this year's ballot cast those votes.
Bobby Scott, the one candidate on a Newport News ballot that Startpage rates a “Privacy champion,” won re-election to the House. The Associated Press called the 3rd District for him at 8:08 PM. On the partial count he had 71% of the district vote and 66% in Newport News. Mark Warner, rated “Leans surveillance,” won the Senate seat.
In the city races, every incumbent who voted for the surveillance items is ahead. With 20 of 43 precincts counted, Mayor Jones had 65%. Long led in Central with 46% (6 of 13 precincts) and Eley in South with 68% (10 of 19). Bethany was unopposed. Sharon Scott, who moved votes 1 and 3, was third for mayor with 11%.
Virginia Department of Elections, Newport News results and statewide results · Daily Press, 3 Nov 2026. We will update these figures when the count is complete.
Startpage grades the federal races and has nothing yet on the city
Startpage's Privacy Ballot grades each candidate on a five-step scale from “Privacy champion” to “Expands surveillance,” with “Still verifying” for anyone it has not reviewed. For a Newport News address it lists three races. Seven of the nine candidates are still unverified.
| Race | Candidate | Startpage grade | What the grade rests on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mayor | Phillip D. Jones, Sharon P. Scott, Phillip A. Hamilton | Still verifying | All three marked “not yet reviewed.” Two of them have council voting records, set out below. |
| U.S. Senate | Mark R. Warner (D) | Leans surveillance | Re-elected 3 November. In April 2024 he voted against the Durbin amendment to bar warrantless access to Americans' communications and against the Wyden amendment to narrow who must assist NSA surveillance, then voted for final passage of the Section 702 reauthorization, 60–34. On the other side, in 2019 he introduced the DETOUR Act against “dark patterns.” |
| Bert Mizusawa (R) | Still verifying | No privacy record found. | |
| U.S. House, VA-03 | Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D) | Privacy champion | Re-elected 3 November. Voted for the April 2024 Biggs amendment to require warrants for Section 702 searches of Americans (failed 212–212), for the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, and against the June 2026 Section 702 extension. |
| Edwin Rivera Jr. (R), Makiba A. Gaines (I), Stephen C. Woll (I) | Still verifying | No privacy record found. | |
| City Council: North, Central, South | Seven candidates, three of them incumbents | Not listed | The races where the drones, Flock cameras and Fusus are actually decided. Covered below. |
| School Board | Not checked here | Not listed | Vote 5 below folded Newport News Public Schools' security systems into the city's camera platform, which makes it a fair question for these candidates. |
Six votes, all unanimous
These are every council vote we found where the staff report named the surveillance equipment or the power being sought. All six passed 7–0, and only one drew any discussion. The last column is the FY2027 budget, which pays for the drones and the Flock cameras; it is shown separately because a budget is not a vote on a named item.
| Council member | 1Dec 2020 | 2Oct 2022 | 3Oct 2022 | 4Feb 2023 | 5Aug 2024 | 6Aug 2024 | BMay 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| On the 3 November ballot | |||||||
| Phillip D. JonesMayor, running again | not on council | not on council | not on council | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Sharon P. ScottRunning for mayor; on council to 2022 | YESmoved | YES | YESmoved | not on council | not on council | not on council | not on council |
| Curtis D. Bethany IIIVice Mayor, North, unopposed | not on council | not on council | not on council | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Cleon M. LongCentral | not on council | not on council | not on council | YES | YESmoved | YESmoved | YES |
| John R. Eley IIISouth | not on council | not on council | not on council | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Not on this ballot · terms run to 2028 | |||||||
| Tina L. VickSouth | YESseconded | YES | YESseconded | YESmoved | YES | YES | YES |
| Marcellus L. Harris IIINorth | YES | YESseconded | YES | YES | YESseconded | YESseconded | YES |
| Robert ColemanJoined council 2025 | not on council | not on council | not on council | not on council | not on council | not on council | YES |
- 18 December 2020$100,000 of police asset-forfeiture money for “cameras and equipment to expand the Real Time Crime Center,” plus vests.7–0 · Scott moved, Vick seconded · no discussion
- 225 October 2022The city's requests to the 2023 General Assembly, including a code change to “Allow Drones to be used as First Responders to Calls for Service.”7–0 · Woodbury moved, Harris seconded · no registered speakers
- 325 October 2022$200,000 of forfeiture money, including a server “to hold case files for investigative Mobile Data Extraction (MDE) downloads,” which is data copied off phones, and crowd-management equipment.7–0 · Scott moved, Vick seconded · no discussion
- 428 February 2023A $749,996 state DCJS grant of federal ARPA money for more Real Time Crime Center cameras and software to “increase surveillance,” including “cellphone Geo Mapping software, cellphone decryption software.”7–0 · Vick moved, Woodbury seconded · the one vote with discussion: a resident asked council to make sure the phone mapping was legal, and the City Attorney said he “had not reviewed the actual grant application but felt it was legal.” Long, Vick and Woodbury spoke in favor.
- 513 August 2024A $75,000 federal Byrne JAG grant for a “security camera software platform” to integrate “video surveillance, access control and automatic license plate readers into a single platform,” taking in Newport News Public Schools' and Riverside Hospital's systems.7–0 in a block of eight items · Long moved, Harris seconded · no discussion · the report names no vendor; the city had run Fusus since 2021, and its seven-year Axon Fusus contract began 1 November 2024
- 613 August 2024A $180,000 state Operation Ceasefire grant, $80,000 of it for “Thermal handheld FLIRs, traffic surveillance cameras and license plate reader equipment.”7–0 in the same block · Long moved, Harris seconded · no discussion
- B12 May 2026The FY2027 budget, which funds the drone program and the rest of the police technology through ordinary line items.7–0 · adopted with no amendments from any council member
Race by race: what each candidate has done
Not one candidate in these races has taken a public position on Flock or the drones that we could find. The record below is what they did in office and what they said in council meetings and to reporters. Numbers refer to the roll call above.
Mayor
Citywide · three candidatesPhillip D. Jones
Voted yes on 4, 5, 6 and the FY2027 budget. Announced the drone program in his State of the City: “This year, Newport News will be among the first in Virginia and among the first in the nation to deploy drones as first responders.” When a resident questioned the phone-mapping software in February 2023, he asked the City Attorney whether it was legal.
In May 2023, with drones on the agenda, he asked for an audit of the city's cybersecurity infrastructure in FY2024 because, the minutes say, “as more and more AI and drones were purchased, he felt that an audit was needed.” The minutes record no such audit. In May 2026 the City Auditor proposed one for FY2027.
WTKR · Minutes: 28 Feb 2023, 9 May 2023 work session, 26 May 2026 work session
Sharon P. Scott
Moved votes 1 and 3, the crime-center cameras and the server for phone-extraction downloads, and voted for 2, the request that Richmond allow drones as first responders. In a May 2019 work session she told colleagues she had brought back the idea of cameras on school buses from a National League of Cities meeting. We found no statement from her on Flock or the drones in this campaign.
Minutes: 14 May 2019 work session, 8 Dec 2020, 25 Oct 2022 · WTKR
Phillip A. Hamilton
No city voting record. His House of Delegates votes have not been checked for surveillance bills.
North District
UnopposedCurtis D. Bethany III
Voted yes on 4, 5, 6 and the FY2027 budget. In May 2023, after the drone presentation: “If I had a top three things to figure out before it's even launched, privacy is top three.” Ten weeks earlier he had voted for the grant that bought phone-decryption and phone-mapping software. We found no public account of what was vetted.
13News Now · Minutes: 28 Feb 2023, 13 Aug 2024
Central District
Three candidatesCleon M. Long
Voted yes on 4 and the FY2027 budget, and moved 5 and 6. At the February 2023 vote the minutes record his support because “the use of cameras always served as a benefit to a community.” We found no public statement from him on the drones.
Minutes: 28 Feb 2023, 13 Aug 2024 · WAVY profile
Andrea R. Diggs
No council record. No public statement on surveillance found.
Michael A. Gale
No council record. No public statement on surveillance found.
South District
Three candidates · where 69% of drone launches happenJohn R. Eley III
Voted yes on 4, 5, 6 and the FY2027 budget. May 2023, after the chief's presentation: “Two-minute response times versus five-minute response times? That could save lives… It makes me feel better. I'm so excited about all the technology.”
April 2026: he told colleagues that about 60 seniors at his Senior Bingo Town Hall had concerns about the drones until Chief Drew spoke to them, and afterwards, the minutes record, they “became excited and supportive.”
13News Now · Minutes: 28 Feb 2023, 13 Aug 2024, 28 Apr 2026 work session · WAVY profile
Clifton J. Atkins
No council record. No public statement on surveillance found.
Devon P. Hamilton
No council record. No public statement on surveillance found.
The big contracts were signed by staff and paid for through the budget
Bought by purchase order since FY2022 and paid as budget line items. We found no vote on any Flock contract or purchase order. Council's one plate-reader vote was the grant equipment in vote 6.
First bought in July 2021 as a $100,000-a-year sole-source subscription, signed by City Manager Cynthia Rohlf. In January 2025 the City Manager signed a $1,000,000, seven-year Axon Fusus agreement through a Sourcewell cooperative contract with no local bid. No council vote either time.
Contract signed 19 December 2025 by Alan Archer as Acting City Manager. No council resolution on its face. Council's part was vote 2, asking Richmond to make it legal.
The budget is where council does decide. The drone contract lets the city walk away on 30 days' notice “without penalty or other cost” when council does not appropriate the money. Who signed each contract →
On the record
Then–Assistant City Manager Alan Archer, per the minutes: “The way to get around privacy and confidential concerns would be to limit the drones to the actual calls for service and be transparent with the data.” In June 2026 he told WHRO the drones are “intended to respond to what we call priority one calls for service.” Of 441 calls the drones have flown to, 201 were priority two, three or four.
Work session minutes · WHROArcher, introducing the drone program, described plate readers, body cameras “and pre-crime technology like ShotSpotter” as transforming police work. The same day, Chief Steve Drew's slide of department technology already listed the “Flock System (License Plate Readers)” and the “FUSUS System.” By then the city had been paying for Fusus for almost two years: it bought it without a bid in July 2021.
Work session minutes · Fusus PO 20220833Councilwoman Vick credited federal relief money with “$500,000 for expansion of the ShotSpotter initiative.”
MinutesCouncilman Coleman, on the city's new code-compliance truck, the “Good Neighbor Patrol Vehicle”: the minutes record that he “clarified it was not surveillance but rather an accountability and assistance program.”
MinutesNewport News Daily (10 May 2026) credited the town hall where about 60 seniors came round on the drones to Councilman Coleman. Both sets of 28 April 2026 minutes record it as Councilman Eley's Senior Bingo Town Hall. Coleman joined council in 2025.
Newport News Daily · Minutes: regular meeting, work session
Two questions with checkable answers
Will you vote to end every automated-surveillance contract the city holds (Flock's cameras and drones, Axon Fusus, ShotSpotter), remove the hardware, and not replace it with another vendor? If not, what would change your mind?
Swapping vendors doesn't count as a yes. Boston, Denver and Reno each dropped Flock and kept the cameras under Axon or Motorola.
Will you vote against funding them in the next budget?
This one has no cost excuse. Flock’s contract terms let the city end them without penalty when council stops paying. Get the answer in writing: an email, a forum, or a reply on the campaign page.
Early voting runs to Saturday 31 October at City Hall (2400 Washington Ave, 6th floor), City Center at Fountain Plaza II, and Denbigh Community Center.
Election day is Tuesday 3 November, polls open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Virginia allows same-day registration with a provisional ballot. Check your polling place at elections.virginia.gov.
How this was checked, and what is still open
Method
We downloaded every regular and work-session minutes document on the city's CivicWeb portal from 2018 to 11 August 2026, 535 in all, and searched them for surveillance, camera, drone, license plate, Flock, Fusus, ShotSpotter, DCJS, Byrne, PSGP, UASI and Operation Ceasefire, among other terms. A vote counts above only when the staff report names the equipment or the power being sought.
Not counted, because the report names no equipment: $100,000 in January 2022 “to fund the expansion of the Real Time Crime Center, and the Public Information Office” (6–0), and a $760,000 federal earmark in September 2023, mostly for the sheriff's re-entry program, part of it for police “gun violence response technology” (6–0). Also not counted: training money that lists drone-pilot and phone-forensics courses; Port Security Grant items (a mobile command bus and boat engines); Operation Ceasefire grants in 2024 and 2026 that paid for prosecutors and overtime. UASI turned up nothing.
Minutes are the clerk's summary. The 2018–19 minutes are scanned with poor text recognition, and some roll calls are missing from the text, so an older vote could have been missed.
Still open
- Whether the cybersecurity audit Mayor Jones requested for FY2024 ever happened. The minutes show none. In March 2026 council met in closed session on “cybersecurity vulnerabilities of the city’s information technology system” and put $6 million into cybersecurity and ransomware software (work session, 28 Apr 2026).
- The roll call on the school-bus camera ordinance (§ 26-9.2), taken up 14 January 2020. It is missing from the minutes' text.
- ShotSpotter's expansion line in the 2022 ARPA plan (passed 6–1, Councilman Jenkins against). The chart that lists it is an image, so the amount is unconfirmed beyond Vick's $500,000 remark.
- Phillip Hamilton's House of Delegates votes on surveillance bills.
- What the school board candidates think of vote 5, which joined school security systems to the city's camera platform.
- What the Good Neighbor Patrol Vehicle records, and how long the city keeps it.
- Minutes after 11 August 2026, which were not yet adopted when this was compiled.
- Startpage, Privacy Ballot, Newport News, VA, read 28 October 2026.
- Newport News City Council minutes, CivicWeb: 8 Dec 2020, 25 Oct 2022, 28 Feb 2023, 14 Mar 2023, 13 Aug 2024, 10 Mar 2026, 28 Apr 2026.
- Work session minutes: 14 May 2019, 11 Oct 2022, 9 May 2023, 24 Mar 2026, 28 Apr 2026, 26 May 2026.
- WTKR, mayoral race · WTKR, State of the City
- 13News Now, May 2023 · WHRO, June 2026
- WAVY, FY2027 budget · Newport News Daily, 10 May 2026
- Candidate lists and races: VPAP mayor, North, Central, South.
- Contracts, camera counts and the drone flight log: deflocknewportnews.org, the drone log, who decided.
Compiled 29 October 2026 from public records. The full paper trail, with the contracts and who signed them, is on Who decided.