In the early morning of July 1, 2025, Norfolk police officers responded to a 911 call about a vehicle stalled in highway traffic in the city’s Ocean View section.
When police arrived, the vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz, sped off, striking an officer and inflicting minor injuries, according to the police report. Multiple Norfolk officers jumped into the hunt for the fleeing vehicle, conducting nearly 900 searches on the Flock Safety system for the vehicle’s license plate.
A new Virginia law mandated that officers state the reason for each search. The officers listed a wide range of justifications: “assault on LEO,” “123,” “Suspect,” “inv,” “suspicious,” “criminal,” “NPD,” “stolen,” and “wanted,” among other reasons. Most of the searches examined where the vehicle had been over the past 30 days…