Virginia police used Flock cameras to track driver 526 times in 4 months, lawsuit says

Lee Schmidt, a retired veteran, wanted to know more about the license plate cameras tracking him in Norfolk, Virginia, where he lives

Lee Schmidt, a retired veteran, wanted to know more about the license plate cameras tracking him in Norfolk, Virginia, where he lives.

So he sued with a co-plaintiff and a legal nonprofit and got an answer: 176 cameras across the city logged his location 526 times between Feb. 19 and July 2, according to a Monday court filing. That’s about four times per day.

“It’s a crazy high number. It was shocking,” Schmidt told NBC News. “The creepiness level just went straight up.”The cameras are operated by Flock Safety, a company that has grown swiftly in recent years and now bills itself as “the largest public-private safety network” in the country. Founded in 2017, Flock offers a wide range of data-generating surveillance equipment, including drones, audio gunshot detectors and body-worn video cameras for police officers, which can then be combined with the company’s software products that include everything from searchable databases to real-time maps.

Flock is relatively new to the automatic license plate readers (ALPR) market, but has become the largest provider of the technology in the country. Flock sells a subscription model to install and maintain ALPRs and give police, businesses and homeowners associations a constant stream of surveillance data.

The lawsuit is specifically concerned with Norfolk’s ALPRs, finding that the company struck a $2.2 million deal with the city for the camera system through the end of 2027.