Henrico terminated its Flock contract more than 2 weeks ago; the cameras are still up

Earlier this month, Henrico Police announced the division would immediately cancel its contract with Flock Safety, citing residents’ growing concerns about privacy and the potential for misuse.

But more than three weeks after that announcement, all 128 Flock cameras throughout the county remain up, said Henrico County Attorney Andrew Newby, despite county officials having asked Flock staff to remove the cameras within two weeks of contract termination.

On Oct. 6, Henrico Police publicly announced the division’s intent to terminate its contract with surveillance company Flock Safety and stated that the contract would be officially cancelled within the next seven days (by Oct. 13). Flock staff were tasked by the county with removing all cameras over the following two weeks.

While the Flock cameras are still visible throughout the county, they are not operational, Newby said, meaning the cameras are not capturing or sending any images to Flock Safety.

“They’re deactivated. They’re not connected to anything,” he said. “It’s not connected to our system or any system.”

Henrico supervisor Misty Roundtree (Three Chopt District) said that “the request is going to be reiterated to Flock to take [the cameras] down.” But in the meantime, county officials are discussing the possibility of having staff from the Henrico Department of Public Works remove the cameras.

“That’s not the preferred method. We want our county staff working on projects that are important to the infrastructure of our county,” Roundtree said. “But we are working on getting them down in the event that Flock does not carry through with actually removing them.”

Roundtree said that to her knowledge, Flock officials have “essentially said they would get to [taking the cameras down]” in communications with the county.

Henrico Police has partnered with Flock Safety since 2022, and since then, has steadily increased the number of Flock cameras in the county to 122 stationary cameras and 6 mobile cameras.

All Henrico Flock cameras are automatic license plate reader cameras; when they were in use, each ALPR camera captured a photo of the back of every vehicle that passed through its viewpoint. Henrico Police retained the images captured by each camera for a total of 21 days, after which they were deleted unless they were related to a criminal investigation.

During the past six months, a number of residents have expressed concerns about the proliferation of Flock cameras throughout Henrico, citing examples around the country of Flock cameras being misused by current or ex-law enforcement officers to stalk ex-partners or rivals. Residents also questioned the credibility of Flock Safety and whether the company was sharing camera data with outside entities.

Despite Henrico’s termination of its Flock contract, some residents say that the continued presence of the cameras still presents privacy risks.

“Please let Henrico citizens know if and when the cameras will be removed,” said resident Michael Keegan at a Henrico Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. “If the cameras are still sending data to Flock for free, the risk of the misuse of camera data is still the same.”

“Just terminating the contract is not enough,” said resident Katie Albright. “There have been no cameras taken down – they’re still up, which means they could still be transmitting data to Flock, and privacy concerts are still very relevant.”

Henrico County does not yet have a set timeline for when staff would take over removing the cameras, or for when all cameras would be officially removed, said Newby, but he said that the process would likely take significant time for county staff to complete on top of other county projects.

“It’ll take some work to do,” Newby said. “Most of the cameras evidently are on posts that are fixed into the ground, and the cameras themselves are way up high. And then you have the post that goes into the ground, and so to remove them, you have to take out this post that's concreted into the ground.”

Could Henrico trade Flock for Axon?

In their Oct. 6 public announcement, Henrico Police said that between Oct. 6 and Oct. 13, officials would “review other options that will continue the division’s operational effectiveness” upon terminating the Flock Safety contract. 

The statement left many residents concerned that Henrico would simply trade Flock cameras for ALPR cameras from another similar surveillance company, generating the same worries about privacy and data misuse.

“The cancellation leaves the window open for the replacement of Flock with other companies, such as Axon. That is something that the people of Henrico County do not want,” said Albright. “We need to ban Flock cameras, and not just Flock – all ALPRs from all companies. They all need to be banned, not just contract terminated.”

Albright said that she has launched an online petition asking Henrico leaders to ban all ALPR cameras from the county. The petition has over 350 signatures so far.

Newby said that he is not aware of any ongoing process for the county to purchase other ALPR cameras. When asked if the county would notify residents if another ALPR camera contract was established, Newby said that those types of contracts do not require public approval, but that officials could choose to involve public input.

“As far as, do contracts like that come to a public hearing? Typically, no,” Newby said. “For instance, the Flock contract did not come to the board for a public hearing. Given the community interest in the topic, though, I imagine it wouldn’t be done without some input.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.