Alexandria, Va., was due to have all 61 of its Flock Safety license plate cameras dark by Friday, Oct. 30. Police Chief Tarrick McGuire told the City Council at its Oct. 27 meeting that he had notified Flock that evening that the city was discontinuing the program, and that he expected the cameras to be deactivated by Friday, Oct. 30, the Alexandria Brief reported. City Manager James Parajon told council, “The Flock contract is canceled.”
Parajon also said the data would be turned off within 48 hours, and McGuire’s goal is to have the hardware removed by the end of December, NBC Washington reported. Neither report says the stored plate reads will be deleted, and I could not find a city press release or council document that addresses it. That is the question that matters to drivers, because Virginia law puts a clock on it.
Turned Off Is Not the Same as Purged
Under Virginia Code § 2.2-5517(E), plate-reader system data “shall be purged after 21 days of the date of its capture.” Data tied to an ongoing investigation, prosecution or civil action is kept until the investigation closes without charges or the matter is finally resolved. Audit trail data, the records of how the system was used, must be purged after two years and “destroyed and not recoverable by either the vendor or the law-enforcement agency.”…