WTOP reported that Fairfax County police told a Board of Supervisors committee on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, that automated license plate readers have helped reduce crime in known hot spots. The presentation came during a nearly two-hour Safety and Security Committee meeting.
The county had already voted to pause installing any new plate readers until it has more detail on how the technology is used. No action was taken at Tuesday's session.
What options did police present?
Police described two ways the county could move forward:
- Keep the current program while testing other vendors that can meet local and state requirements.
- Switch to a 'closed network ALPR system' with no data sharing outside Fairfax County, then evaluate the results in a year.
Supervisor Andres Jimenez said a fourth option, no automated plate readers in the county, was missing from the presentation.
How many cameras does Fairfax County have?
- 84 Flock cameras operated by county police
- 120 privately owned Flock cameras in the county
- More than 700 Axon Fleet 3 plate readers on police cruisers
Maj. Hudson Bull, who oversees the county's Real Time Crime Center, said the technology has been used since 2008. Police consider how concentrated crime is in an area, whether a camera would address it, and whether a private owner consents to a placement.
How long is plate data kept, and who can see it?
Bull said Fairfax police own all the data their cameras collect and that it is stored in Amazon Web Services' GovCloud systems. The county controls who can access it, and the data cannot be sold to third parties.
Camera data can be kept for a maximum of three weeks. Police Chief Kevin Davis said a narrower schedule could hurt investigations. As of July 2025, Virginia law bars sharing the data outside the commonwealth. Every search is audited with both artificial intelligence and human review, Bull said.
What changes for drivers in Fairfax County?
The only change so far is the pause on new installations. Tuesday's session produced no action on the existing program, so the county's current cameras were not altered at the meeting.
Police said they 'do not control what private people do,' so privately owned Flock cameras sit outside the county's direct control. Cameras run by neighboring Alexandria and Arlington are decided separately. WTOP noted that Alexandria published a dashboard of its plate reader locations and that Arlington removed Flock cameras from public property.
You can see where cameras are mapped on the camera map, and read how plate readers work before the board takes up the options. Published county transparency records are listed on our agency pages.
What happens next?
Deputy County Executive Tom Arnold told the group that if the program ends and crime rises, people could rewatch the meeting in April of next year to see why. The board has not voted on any of the options, and the coverage does not give a date for that vote.