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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Mayor Alyia Gaskins said Tuesday that Alexandria police do not and will not share automated license plate reader data in civil immigration cases, responding to resident questions about the city's Flock Safety camera network.
"Are there Flock cameras in the City of Alexandria? And the answer to that question is yes," Gaskins said in a video posted to her social media accounts.
The Police Department has used license plate reader technology for more than 20 years in cases involving stolen vehicles, missing persons and illegal firearms, she said, and began deploying Flock cameras in 2023 after a rise in car thefts. The cameras identify vehicles by license plate, make and model and capture still images, not audio or video.
Gaskins said she asked the department where the cameras are, how they are governed and what protects against unauthorized access by agencies including ICE.
Cameras are placed only on major thoroughfares, she said, with placement decided by police in consultation with the Office of Race and Social Equity and the Independent Police Review Auditor. She did not say where the cameras are located or how many there are.
"APD does not and will not share any of this data in civil immigration cases," she said.
She said data is deleted after 21 days, that the city audits the system weekly for compromise or unauthorized use, and that there is no evidence to date of a breach.
What the directive says
The department's governing policy, Directive 10.40, was signed by Police Chief Tarrick McGuire on Oct. 28, 2025, replacing a version from March of that year.
It supports the mayor's central point. Data "may only be shared with other Virginia law enforcement agencies," the directive says, and "can only be provided to other state or federal law enforcement agencies pursuant to a search warrant or court issued subpoena." Access is limited to trained officers with needs tied to a criminal offense investigation, a stolen vehicle or plate, a missing or endangered person, human trafficking or a fugitive from justice. Civil immigration enforcement is not among the permitted uses.
The directive also confirms the retention period. Data is transmitted to a centralized database and "retained for no longer than 21 days, after which, a mandatory purge will occur," citing Virginia Code § 2.2-5517. A Flock-hosted transparency portal for the department, updated Tuesday, lists a 21-day retention period and 61 license plate readers and other cameras.
On one point the directive differs from the mayor's description. It requires the Mobile Computer Unit sergeant to conduct an internal audit "once every 30 days" — not weekly — to confirm officers are using the system in accordance with policy and state law. A previous version of the directive, effective June 2024, required a weekly audit of the Flock database. The current directive describes the audit as a check on officer use rather than on external compromise.
The directive does not address camera placement, and does not mention the Office of Race and Social Equity or the Independent Police Review Auditor.
Its definition of a hot list — the watch lists the system checks plates against — includes the federal Terrorist Screening Center list, stolen and wanted vehicles, wanted and missing persons, Amber Alerts and "various watch lists provided for law enforcement purposes." The portal lists the hot lists the system alerts on as Amber Alerts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and NCIC data from Virginia State Police.
License plate reader system and audit trail data are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, the directive says.
The chief has made this case before
McGuire has fielded the immigration question directly. At a March 24 council meeting, a member asked whether other Virginia agencies with access to Alexandria's data could legally share it with federal immigration authorities.
McGuire said state law explicitly prohibits sharing license plate reader data with federal law enforcement, and that agencies violating it would face criminal prosecution and risk losing accreditation and police powers. "I would say that they would be subject to prosecution," he said. No infractions involving Alexandria's data have occurred, he said.
The answer did not fully settle the concern. "We're dealing with a federal administration that does not respect the law," a council member said. "While I hear you on the guardrails, I still feel that there's not enough guardrails and I still worry about what's being done with our data."
"I empathize with that comment," McGuire replied. "I can speak to what we do here and what has been put into law in the Commonwealth of Virginia."
McGuire has also argued the department needs more technology, not less. At the same meeting he pressed council for investment in force multipliers including drones and real-time information, citing hiring and retention challenges. Gaskins and Councilman John Chapman called for a dedicated technology discussion, pointing to a stalled proposal for a real-time crime center.
The department's G.R.E.A.T. public safety framework, presented to council in June, includes a Technology pillar committing APD to community education and feedback before major technology decisions. McGuire told a July community forum that falling behind neighboring jurisdictions "creates an information gap."
APD has also described Flock as central to routine operations. Its holiday crime prevention initiative last November listed Flock license plate recognition alongside public safety cameras with real-time monitoring as part of its enforcement strategy.
A question that keeps returning
Gaskins has been asked about Flock cameras before. In September, responding to a resident who submitted a question through the city's 311 system asking whether Alexandria should drop its Flock contract, she said state law bars Virginia agencies from sharing the data with out-of-state or federal law enforcement, and that police had worked with Flock to disable national data sharing so only Virginia agencies can reach Alexandria's cameras.
"If any federal agency or out-of-state police department wants access to this information, they must obtain a search warrant or court order signed by a judge," she said then, adding that the chief had told her ICE would be unlikely to obtain one because immigration matters are typically civil rather than criminal.
In January, Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine wrote to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, citing reporting that Virginia's Flock network had been queried thousands of times in immigration cases and alleging DHS accessed software it does not officially have access to, including Flock. The city has not said publicly whether Alexandria's cameras were among those queried.
ICE Out of Alexandria, a coalition of local organizations, called Monday for the mayor, vice mayor and City Council to ban automated license plate readers citywide.
That demand is split between two bodies. Council oversees the Police Department's program. It has no authority over a second, smaller system run by the Alexandria Sheriff's Office, an independently elected constitutional officer.
Gaskins did not mention the coalition. She said the city is working with police to evaluate its use of technology, "not just Flock cameras," and to be more transparent about those decisions, and encouraged residents to contact council members.
A separate system at the jail
The Sheriff's Office operates two fixed Flock cameras at the entrances to the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center under a general order effective Jan. 1, according to a redacted version posted on the Sheriff's Office website. That policy sets retention at 21 days and says hot lists may draw on sources including Department of Homeland Security watch lists. DHS is ICE's parent agency.
Where an answer might come from
State law requires law enforcement agencies operating license plate readers to file quarterly reports with Virginia State Police. Under § 2.2-5517(I), those reports must include a list of all state and federal databases the system data was compared against, and whether other law enforcement agencies were granted access to the data.
Reports for the first two quarters of 2026 were due April 1 and July 1. Because the underlying system and audit trail data are exempt from FOIA, the quarterly filings are among the few public records that could show whether federal agencies have reached Alexandria's license plate data.
