Mayor, Council Members Call For City To Dump Flock Cameras During Legislative Meeting

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Several Alexandria City Council members and the city’s mayor suggested that Alexandria should get rid of its Flock cameras as the city police chief updated the city council on their use during the Tuesday night legislative meeting.

Police Chief Tarrick McGuire updated the council on his department’s use of Flock cameras and reiterated restrictions, including not sharing Flock information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, requiring training before police officers can use the cameras, and data-purging schedules. McGuire said the cameras had helped his department solve recent serious crimes, including homicides and sex offenses.

McGuire also said the department was evaluating other vendors and programs that might provide better safeguards for any data collected. He also noted that the city's contract with Flock's vendor can be canceled at any time.

Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Councilman Abdel Elnoubi and Councilwoman Sandy Marks were among those expressing a desire to remove the 61 Flock cameras operating in the city, with Marks saying she’d want to ensure that a similar technology from a different vendor wasn’t allowed to take its place without a public conversation. Elnoubi called for a timeline for ending the use of Flock cameras in the city.

McGuire fielded questions from council members, some of which he was not able to answer in the moment. Council members asked for more details about the cameras in the city, including distinguishing between cameras operated by the police department and cameras potentially operated by private entities, a breakdown of the cameras’ features, whether APD shares its footage with any private entities, and how the cameras affect budgeting and staffing.

The APD has published a Flock Public Safety Dashboard with an explanation of how the cameras are supposed to be used and data showing how APD is using them.

The Alexandria Brief reports that Gaskins suggested future discussions on the cameras be scheduled on their own and not as part of other larger meetings and asked for answers to the council’s questions to McGuire to be published online.