Dear Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors,

We are writing to you as concerned citizens regarding the installation and use of Flock automated license plate readers (ALPRs) on the roads of Chesterfield County.

Although we do support reasonable efforts to ensure public safety, we have grave concerns about the broad and lasting implications of a camera system that tracks nearly all citizens' movements throughout our county. It’s important to note that the majority of the citizenry captured by these AI-powered camera networks are ordinary people who have committed no crimes.

As citizens, we have a right to privacy of travel without being followed or documented in our daily lives. Yet Chesterfield County has allowed Flock Safety—a private company—to record citizens’ travel patterns, store that information in a database, and ultimately make a profit by violating our fourth amendment rights.

These cameras are always on. They often get posted near major intersections, schools, healthcare centers, places of worship, and firearms stores. Unlike standard cameras, they create a fingerprint of a car’s license plate number, make, model, color, bumper stickers, dents and imperfections, and the date and time you drove by. Flock Safety is able to annotate these images to improve its AI algorithm and capture better information about us in its dragnet.

Not only is this database searchable without a warrant, it can also be legally accessed by law enforcement agencies throughout Virginia.

In addition to our broader concerns about mass surveillance technology being deployed against Chesterfield County residents, we are also alarmed by the growing evidence suggesting that Flock Safety cannot be trusted with this sensitive data. Numerous security vulnerabilities in their cameras (including the Falcon model purchased by Chesterfield) have been exposed and continue to be exploited, and law enforcement officers across the country have been caught inappropriately using or flat-out abusing Flock’s technology.

From leaks of live cameras and surveillance target data and tracking protesters to abusing access for personal reasons and unlawfully aiding federal law enforcement activities, Flock infringes on our freedom and compromises the safety it claims to be giving communities like Chesterfield.

At this point we are requesting the following actions:

1. Turn off all active cameras immediately.
2. Terminate Chesterfield County’s contract with Flock Safety and remove the cameras, giving 30 days’ notice as soon as possible.
3. Pass an ordinance to ban ALPRs in Chesterfield County.
4. Schedule robust, well-publicized public meetings to discuss other forms of camera surveillance being used in Chesterfield County and whether they have a place here.
5. Establish an independent, citizen-reviewed transparency portal to ensure public awareness of all remaining forms of camera surveillance in Chesterfield County.

Sincerely,

Concerned Citizens of Chesterfield County