Crime in the City
Richmond police reactivated the city's Flock Safety license plate reader cameras on Friday, after the system was turned off last year over data-sharing concerns, according to Richmond Police Chief Tim Simmons.
The cameras were taken offline in October 2025 after a "national lookup" feature had been running in the background, which made Richmond's license plate data accessible to law enforcement agencies across the country.
Simmons said technicians are testing each of the city's cameras individually to verify that batteries and firmware are current before bringing units back online, a process expected to take about a week.
Richmond police halt license plate readers
The Richmond Police Department has shut down its automated license plate reader system after discovering that a configuration error allowed some outside law enforcement agencies to run limited searches of Richmond’s data, the department said in a social media post. Police said Flock Safety had notified the department that
Soren Hemmila
"The delay has been ensuring all of the contract language and intentions requested by the council were accurately reflected in the contract, so there was some back and forth with the vendor to do that," Simmons said.
The Richmond City Council voted 4-3 in March to extend Flock Safety's contract through December 31, 2026, directing the city attorney to negotiate stronger data protections before the cameras were restored.
Richmond council votes to reinstate Flock Safety license plate readers
The Richmond City Council voted Tuesday night to extend the city’s contract with Flock Safety through December 31, 2026, reinstating the company’s automated license plate reader system that had been disabled since November amid a data sharing scandal, while directing the city attorney to negotiate stronger data protections
Soren Hemmila
Richmond is reactivating its cameras while neighboring cities head in the opposite direction. El Cerrito's city council voted 3-2 on May 5 to let its contract expire, meaning the city's 40 cameras will go dark on June 7.
In Berkeley, the council voted 8-1 on May 7 to reject a proposed surveillance expansion that would have added drones and fixed cameras, but narrowly agreed to extend its existing lease of 52 Flock plate readers for one more year.
YOU GET MORE WITH A PAID SUBSCRIPTION
Your subscription enables Grandview Independent to deliver more:
- More time devoted to in-depth reporting
- Longer, more comprehensive stories
- Greater coverage of what matters to our community
Quality journalism costs money. Subscriptions allow us to keep reporting the stories that matter, without paywalls getting in the way of critical community information.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE - Starting at just $10/month
FOLLOW US FOR BREAKING NEWS:
• Twitter: @GrandviewIndy
• Instagram: @GrandviewIndependent
• Facebook: @Grandview Independent
Copyright © 2026 Grandview Independent, all rights reserved.
Members Discussion