Last year, the Charlottesville Police Department entered into a contract with the company FLOCK to install ten cameras across the city that read license plates in order to identify and locate people believed to have committed a crime.
Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis appeared before City Council on February 3 to describe some of the results to date.
“There was a shooting on Hardy Drive on a playground where someone was shot in the leg,” Kochis said. “We had a description of the vehicle [and]was able to punch it into the system. We were able to identify a tag to that vehicle, ultimately identifying the person and suspect who involved in that shooting and make an arrest.”
There are ten cameras across the community and their locations are known.
Chief Kochis said the data has also been used to locate a missing child who ended up not being in any danger. Evidence has also been passed on to other jurisdictions such a homicide, but he added he could not divulge more information.
“Due to the ongoing nature of a lot of them, I can’t talk about specifics, but I will tell you that this system is used in every one of our shootings,” Kochis said. “It’s been used in a recent homicide. We are using it and it’s been fruitful in a way that allows us to make progress in these cases much faster, especially when we’re talking about dangerous individuals out on the streets.”
The city retains data for seven days, which Chief Kochis said is the shortest period in the Commonwealth. Access is restricted to law enforcement officers only and a suspect cannot be detained solely if there is an alert for them sent out over the automatic license plate reader system.
“The officer must develop independent, reasonable suspicion for that stop,” Kochis said. “And that verbiage was taken out of the ACLU’s model policy recommendation.”
There’s also a “transparency portal” with basic information on who can use the data and who can’t use the data. This portal states the information is not to be used for enforcing immigration.
“The Charlottesville Police Department utilizes retro-active search functions and pro-active alerts to solve crimes after they’ve occurred,” reads the portal. “Additionally, The Charlottesville Police Department utilizes real-time alerting of hotlist vehicles to capture wanted individuals.”
The system is also audited once a month and the executive director of the Police Civilian Oversight Board has access to the records management system.
Legislation has passed the House of Delegates that would require certain policies for their use including reporting. HB2724 from Delegate Charniele Herring (D-4) passed the House of Delegates on a 59 to 39 vote on February 4.
Delegate Amy Laufer (D-55) voted for the bill whereas Delegate Katrina Callsen (D-54) voted against the bill.
Chief Kochis said the language in the bill was crafted with Charlottesville in mind.
“We’re being looked at almost as a model,” Kochis said. “They’ve looked at stuff from our policies when drafting guardrails on the state, on the state level and the draft legislation that is out there. Our current policy meets all of those guardrails that are in that draft legislation and then some.”
Councilo r Lloyd Snook said he has been concerned about the cameras from a privacy perspective, but he supported their installation because of the protections in place.
“It seems to me that they are reasonably calculated to avoid some of the worst case scenarios that people are have been throwing out about the way in which flock systems might be, might be used or misused,” Snook said. “And so I’m, you know, cautiously optimistic… that the system will continue to work satisfactorily without being unduly intrusive.”
Kochis said the same presentation will be given to other groups in the community.
Before you go: This article was originally sent out as part of the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter in the February 5, 2025 edition. Both are functions of Town Crier Productions. You can support the work by purchasing a paid subscription or contributing monthly through Patreon. You can also send in a check or send an email, but drop me a line first!
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