Norfolk reports lowest number of homicides in 40 years

Our Take

This video comes straight from Flock Safety's own channel, which should tell you something right away: it's a marketing reel, not an independent evaluation. Norfolk's homicide numbers are genuinely good news for the city, but the clip conveniently bundles "increased staffing, professional support roles, and expanded technology" into one tidy narrative where the cameras get top billing. Nowhere in this production is there a controlled comparison showing what the staffing changes alone would have done, or what similar cities without 175 ALPRs experienced over the same two years. Correlation dressed up as causation is Flock's favorite sales pitch, and it works because most viewers never see the underlying crime stats or audit logs.

What's missing is any mention of how those "thousands of integrated camera feeds" are governed — who can query them, for how long plates are retained, whether Norfolk residents who aren't suspected of anything are being logged every time they drive to work or church. A city can have fewer homicides and still be building a permanent, searchable record of everyone's movements. Those two facts aren't mutually exclusive, and a vendor-produced highlight reel isn't going to volunteer that tension.

If you live in or near Norfolk, it's worth checking our camera map to see exactly where this network sits, and our take-action page for how to push your city council toward real transparency and retention limits — not just a highlight reel from the company selling the hardware.