Three days after announcing Richmond won’t renew its automatic license plate reader contract with Flock Safety at the end of June, Mayor Danny Avula said he hopes the city can come up with a path forward that balances the public safety benefits of the controversial cameras with privacy concerns. 

City Hall is “trying to see if there is both a happy middle ground that allows the use of the technology, which we’ve been very clear helps the public safety mission, with the sense of what people need and what people fear around what is involved with the surveillance state,” said Avula during a press conference. 

Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards similarly said that he wants Richmond to “find that happy medium between the concerns of our community and the very real ability of this technology to keep our community safe.” 

Saturday’s announcement followed Henrico County’s decision just days prior to end its contract with Flock, which was scheduled to run out Nov. 14, as well as months of complaints from local activists who have pointed to abuses of the technology across the nation.

Locally, a Chesterfield County police employee was recently charged with misusing the camera system. This April, the Richmond Police Department informed the public a sergeant had improperly shared Flock information with a federal agent, although Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Colette McEachin’s office declined to prosecute the case.

Avula acknowledged Tuesday that he personally has some concerns with Flock, the largest and best-known of the companies that operate automatic license plate reader (ALPR) technology. 

“Particularly as an immigrant, as I’ve heard stories about how immigrants have been terrorized, as I’ve seen the role that ICE has played here in our local community, I think at the national level the concern that that data might be used, shared in a way that’s not helpful, deeply concerns me,” he said. 

Edwards for his part said “the biggest concern I have and the biggest challenge with this technology is the abuse by the operator.” 

“That is happening throughout the country, where officers are using it to track ex-wives and things like that, and that is a betrayal of trust,” he said. “We have ways to address that at RPD should we run into that.” 

Both the mayor and the police chief, however, have continued to argue the technology has clear material benefits for policing, including the ability to more quickly identify perpetrators of crime, cut down on traffic stops and reduce the number of people who have to be subpoenaed as witnesses in cases. 

While the city will be ending its contract with Flock, Avula said the city hasn’t ruled out the possibility of contracting with another company for those services. 

“It is still on the table that we would consider the use of other ALPR technologies and other law enforcement technologies broader than that, like gunshot detection, which I have not heard much concerning feedback around,” said the mayor. 

According to the police chief, Richmond’s current Flock contract for the city’s automatic license plate reader system costs $285,000, while the gunshot detection contract is for $152,000. 

The city does not plan to discontinue its use of the gunshot detection system. 

‘Not a closed decision’ 

Avula has pledged to hold a series of “community conversations” in the coming months to decide how the city should proceed with automatic license plate reader technology. 

On Tuesday, he explained his decision to announce the city would not renew the Flock contract at the end of June 2027 ahead of those conversations as an effort to let the community know that the “conversation is changing.” 

“What I’m trying to be clear about in every step of this is that this is not a closed decision,” he said. 

He pointed to two factors as having persuaded his administration to take immediate action: Henrico’s decision to terminate its contract and what Avula described as a growing range of people “who are raising questions and who are expressing concerns about the role that surveillance technology has in our society.” 

Still, the mayor said he doesn’t believe the group of activists who have persistently lobbied the City Council to cancel the Flock contract is representative of the city population broadly or of communities experiencing high levels of gun violence. 

“We've heard from many residents at City Council meetings, and those voices certainly matter,” he said. “But we also need to hear from the people whose lives have been disproportionately impacted by crime and who may not be showing up at those meetings.” 

The mayor contends the conversations his administration intends to hold with residents in coming months will capture a broader range of opinions than what has typically been heard at Council meetings. 

“We'll go to a meeting in a lower-income community or a community that's experiencing a lot of violence, and people are clamoring for more police participation, more surveillance, and so there are very different messages that are emerging in our community,” he said. 

The debate is also expected to continue on the state level. Several legislators, including Richmond Sen. Mike Jones, have already publicly stated they are drafting bills for the upcoming General Assembly session to address the issue.  

“There's a role for the state and federal government here,” said Avula Tuesday. “I think that if there were a company that was not a big national company, if there was a closed network for the state of Virginia where we could build our own guidelines and manage our own data, would that change things for members of the public? It certainly would for me. I’d feel a lot better about that scenario.” 

Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org