Charlottesville Police have paused use of Peregrine software, not sharing Flock data

Earlier this year, members of City Council expressed concern about the use of software to help Charlottesville Police Department analyze crime data. The city was to have received $150,000 from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services as part of Attorney General Jason Miyares’ Operation Ceasefire program.

Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis told Council that his department will not use the Peregrine software.

“We’re not going to be using it at this point,” Kochis said. “We had a grant that was accepted by this body, but after hearing some things and some concerns, we’re going to hold off on using Peregrine.”

Kochis also said that the city has stopped sharing surveillance data collected through ten cameras connected to the Flock network. That’s because the data could conceivably be used by other Virginia localities to assist with enforcement of federal immigration laws under a program known as 287(g). (learn more)

“That is a federal program that allows local jurisdictions to do immigration enforcement,” Kochis said. “There are 13 of them in Virginia. Some of them are near here. And so because of that and the possibility that they could be doing enforcement with Flock if they have access to it, we have also shut off to all local jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Kochis said Charlottesville is the only locality in Virginia to have done so. He added that means that the system is not accessible to this community and so any cases that originate here will not be able to use license plate data to locate suspects. He did say the cameras are still active and can be used for local cases.

Kochis had other updates as well.

At the tail end of the school year, the City of Charlottesville began using speed cameras in certain elementary school zones.

“We did our first week trial of that for over about 10 days and over that time we just gave out warnings,” said Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis. “But in that short period of time there were 181 warnings issued. In the fall, those will be real tickets.”

The speed limit in those zones is 15 miles per hour.

Kochis also commended Indivisible Charlottesville as well those who attended the No Kings rally on Saturday for how they conducted themselves during the protest.

“I think they counted somewhere around 6,000 folks that showed up,” Kochis said. “I was in the command center and I think it’s a model on how these things really do go. And I couldn’t be more proud of the community for stepping up and showing how to do this the right way.”

Kochis also put in a plug for a gun buyback program that is taking place this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church.

Before you go: This story was first published in the June 17, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. The intent was to post here immediately, but there was a delay of a day.