The Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously Thursday (Sept. 24) to ban the use of Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers (ALPRs) on school property.
The motion, introduced by at-large member Kyle McDaniel and seconded by Springfield District representative Sandy Anderson, prohibits the “installation, procurement, or leasing” of ALPRs on property owned by the school board. It has no impact on the school system’s internal video cameras, speed cameras or school bus stop-arm cameras.
The vote is largely a preemptive measure since Fairfax County Public Schools does not have — and was not planning to have — any ALPRs installed, officials stressed.
“Fundamentally, for me, this is about the scope and the mission of what we do as a division,” said McDaniel, who is also vice chair of the board. “It also addresses the significant civil liberties and privacy concerns that have been raised by constituents to me and folks across the country. We are not a police department. We are an educational institution. Our job, our mission, our focus, our budget dollars, are about making sure that 177,000 kids get the best education possible.”
McDaniel acknowledged the “significant privacy concerns about this technology” that have emerged from around the country, saying that ALPRs “are not your run-of-the-mill security cameras.”
The school board’s vote follows the county government’s recent decision to re-examine its own relationship with Flock, following lobbying by local residents concerned about privacy and the potential for misuse. The Board of County Supervisors voted unanimously earlier this month to “pause” installation of new cameras until its Safety and Security Committee meets Oct. 20, though no new cameras were planned for that time period.
The county also sent Flock’s CEO a letter with a list of detailed questions asking for clarification on who owns and has access to the county’s data; how the company handles potential conflicts between states with different laws, including whether the county can block particular jurisdictions or searches related to immigration; and how Flock’s artificial intelligence-powered searches work.
School board members did not reference the county’s action, but noted that they only have control over cameras on school grounds. While FCPS has cameras on school grounds, information is stored on servers that are located within Fairfax County property; there is no cloud-based storage of data, staff said. The school system advertises a 14-day retention period for data, although sometimes that can extend for upwards of 30 days.
“We have some of the mechanisms within our schools that will provide the necessary security without going into some of this technology that, to this point, does not have guardrails, so I’m very happy to support this,” said Marcia St. John-Cunning, Franconia district representative.
St. John-Cunning continued, “Because it is a preemptive move, we know that this is just something that we’re not even going to look at. We can only control what we can control; we can’t control buildings that are on the other side of the street. But I think this will give some level of security to our families and to the constituents that wrote me that we value their right to privacy.”
