Another Virginia police department announces suspension of Flock cameras

Our Take

WSET ABC 13's Morning Minute flags something worth paying attention to: Lynchburg is now the latest Virginia police department to hit pause on its Flock Safety camera network. That's not a one-off. Virginia has become ground zero for departments quietly backing away from these systems after questions piled up about out-of-state data sharing, immigration-related lookups, and whether local use even matched what was promised to city councils when the contracts were signed.

What's notable is the pattern. These suspensions rarely come from agencies proactively auditing themselves — they come after reporters, researchers, or state officials start asking pointed questions the department can't comfortably answer. That tells you the oversight that's supposed to exist at the point of purchase and deployment just isn't happening. The cameras go up fast; the accountability shows up only when someone forces it.

If you want to see how far this network actually reaches, check our camera map to find Flock installations near you, and if a suspension like Lynchburg's has you wondering what you can do locally, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing your own city council on transparency and data policy. Credit to WSET ABC 13 for keeping this story in front of Virginia viewers — it's exactly the kind of local accountability reporting that keeps these systems from operating in the dark.