CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – A bill that would have regulated Automatic License Plate Readers in the Commonwealth passed through the General Assembly, but not without a couple amendments from Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Those in Charlottesville may be familiar with the city’s automatic Flock cameras, which police use to track stolen vehicles, missing persons, and homicides.
Legislation in Richmond would have set up specific guardrails, including limits on retention periods and a requirement for further legislation to expand these cameras.
But Youngkin made a few changes: raise the data retention period from 21 days to 30 and make the expansion of these readers onto state rights-of-way automatic.
Charlottesville’s Legal Aid Justice Center says that’s not good enough.
“We really believe that it’s a privacy concern to have [Automatic License Plate Readers] expanded on to state right of ways,” said Ruby Cherian, an attorney with the Center. “We should see how these guardrails look when they’re put into place and have some time to see how that works before we make the decision to expand.”
The General Assembly is reviewing amendments to this bill and many others during Wednesday’s veto session.
Charlottesville Police has the lowest retention period in the state, at seven days.
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