Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins addressed community concerns about the city’s use of Flock Safety surveillance cameras during a live one-on-one discussion with ALXnow on Tuesday, providing clarification and further details on Wednesday that new Virginia laws prevent the technology from being misused by federal immigration enforcement.
The mayor’s clarification came in response to a resident’s question about whether the Alexandria Police Department should discontinue its contract with Flock Safety, an AI surveillance company that has faced scrutiny over potential misuse by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Under the new Virginia law governing the sharing of Flock data, law enforcement agencies in Virginia are prohibited from sharing this data with agencies outside the state, including federal law enforcement,” Gaskins said in follow-up comments provided Wednesday to ALXnow after the September 2 discussion.
The resident had specifically asked: “The Alexandria PD is a customer of Flock, an AI surveillance company that’s been known to be issued illicitly by ICE to track immigrants. Under the current federal administration, abuse of technology like this seems likely to continue. Given our city’s commitment to keeping our neighbors safe, is it wise to continue using this or any similar surveillance service? Would the city consider dropping Flock to prevent even the possibility of misuse?”
Virginia Law Creates New Protections
The Alexandria Police Department operates 61 Flock cameras throughout the city that capture license plate and vehicle information but do not use facial recognition technology or detect people, gender or race, according to the company’s transparency portal updated Wednesday.
Gaskins explained that APD has worked with Flock to disable national data sharing capabilities to comply with Virginia law. Previously, Flock operated as a national network with a shared feature that allowed agencies across the country to access each other’s data. Now only Virginia law enforcement agencies can access Alexandria’s camera data.
“If any federal agency or out-of-state police department wants access to this information, they must obtain a search warrant or court order signed by a judge,” she said.
The mayor noted that immigration enforcement typically involves civil rather than criminal matters, making it unlikely that ICE could obtain the necessary warrants to access the data unless related to a criminal investigation.
“According to the Chief of Police, it is unlikely that ICE would be able to obtain a warrant or court order to access our data unless it were related to a criminal investigation,” Gaskins said in her follow-up response.
City Reviews All Programs
During Tuesday’s live discussion, Gaskins acknowledged she did not have an immediate answer when first asked about the Flock cameras but said she had reached out to the police chief for a recommendation after receiving the question through the city’s 311 system on Friday.
“I think you have a council that has made it very clear that we believe that the actions that ICE is taking in this community, that they are wrong, that they deny people their due process, their civil liberties and their constitutional rights,” Gaskins said.
The mayor said the city is reviewing all programs to ensure they align with Alexandria’s values as a welcoming community and do not share data inappropriately or place residents in harm’s way.
“We are looking at, and we have directed the city manager to be looking at every program, everything that we’re doing to make sure that we are true to our values of being a welcoming community,” she said.
Current Policies and Usage
According to Flock Safety’s transparency portal, Alexandria’s cameras retain data for 30 days and are used only for law enforcement purposes. The city’s policy explicitly prohibits using the technology for immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation, or actions based solely on protected classes such as race, sex or religion.
The cameras have helped solve several cases, including locating a stolen vehicle driven by a fugitive who had escaped from a Wisconsin prison in September 2023, and finding a missing juvenile from Fairfax County in October 2023.
All system access requires a valid reason and is stored indefinitely, according to the city’s policies. Hotlist alerts must be verified by humans before action is taken.
The discussion of Flock cameras was part of a broader conversation on Tuesday. You can watch the conversation in its entirety here.
