State Senator wants to make Flock, other similar cameras illegal in Virginia

Our Take

Credit where it's due: 8News reporters got a sitting state senator on record saying what a lot of Virginians are already thinking — that a statewide network of license plate cameras feeding a searchable database is a problem, not a convenience. Glen Sturtevant isn't some fringe activist; he's a Republican lawmaker willing to spend political capital next session trying to outlaw Flock and similar systems entirely. That's notable.

What makes this story matter beyond Richmond is the pattern it fits. Flock's pitch to local police departments is always the same — solve car thefts, find missing kids, stop the bad guy. But once thousands of cameras are logging every plate that passes, you've built an infrastructure that can track anyone's movements, searchable by any officer with access, with almost no public oversight of how that data gets used, shared, or retained. "Should not become a surveillance state" is the right framing, and it's refreshing to hear it from someone in a position to actually write a bill instead of just complaining online.

Whether this legislation goes anywhere in the General Assembly is an open question — Flock has money, lobbyists, and a lot of police chiefs who like the tool. That's exactly why public pressure matters now, before session starts. Check our map to see how many of these cameras are already sitting in your own county, and hit up take action if you want to tell your own representatives Virginia shouldn't wait until the cameras are everywhere to ask if they should be there at all.