Virginia Beach Police are installing new license plate readers

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – If you’ve driven through Virginia Beach in the last month, you may have noticed some new cameras at busy intersections around the city.

These cameras are the Virginia Beach Police Department’s new license plate readers.

Cars are used in all types of crimes, from robberies to shootouts to AMBER alarms. Now these cameras in Virginia Beach read license plates as cars drive by.

According to Flock Safety, if one of its cameras detects a tag or a specific make or model of car that is on a police department’s crime list, it alerts officers.

VBPD says it will install 25 of these Flock freestanding license plate readers. So far, 19 are in operation, with six more in the pipeline. The department confirms that the system deletes license plate data after 30 days unless it is pinged as part of a criminal investigation.

But license plate readers are nothing new in Hampton Roads.

In the last 18 months, 215 Virginia Beach police departments have installed automated license plate reader cameras in their cars.

Police in Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth Suffolk and Chesapeake also use license plate readers. The system is part of a push to expand technology to fight crime as many departments still struggle with staffing shortages.

Each camera costs about $2,500 per year.

However, some groups have privacy concerns.

The ACLU of Virginia sent a statement to 13News Now calling the camera system “invasive mass surveillance.”

“ALPRs are not just any surveillance cameras: they are high-tech devices that would allow police to collect data on the destination of every passing car without the need for a search, even outside of Virginia. During the 2024 General Assembly, lawmakers from both parties supported strict regulations. “That’s because there is no evidence that ALPRs reduce crime – but plenty of evidence that they expose Virginia’s population to highly invasive mass surveillance,” said Policy Director Chris Kaiser.