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Richmond police keep automated license-plate readers offline as council weighs policy
Summary
At the March 9 Richmond Neighborhood Coordinating Council meeting, Police Chief Tim Simmons said the city’s ALPR (Flock) cameras remain turned off after a functionality issue that made plate data accessible to other agencies; CCTV and a drone program remain active while the City Council considers policy and vendor options.
Chief Tim Simmons told the Richmond Neighborhood Coordinating Council on March 9 that Richmond’s automated license-plate reader (ALPR) system — commonly referred to as Flock — remains turned off while the city and police department evaluate policy and technical safeguards.
“The cameras are off,” Simmons said, explaining he paused the ALPR deployment after discovering an operating-system feature allowed a national search of full license-plate numbers, which made Richmond’s plate data accessible to other agencies. “There’s no evidence that any information in the city of Richmond was ever used or accessed. It was made accessible but not accessed,” he said.
Simmons said the pause began in early November when the feature was discovered and that he is seeking City Council…
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