Study: Flock cameras concentrated in majority Black and high-poverty areas of Hampton Roads
Researchers at Christopher Newport University mapped 614 court-unsealed Flock automatic license plate reader locations and found heavy concentration of cameras in majority Black and low-income census tracts, raising privacy and bias concerns.
- CNU researchers mapped 614 Flock camera locations and found they cluster in majority Black and high-poverty census tracts.
- Majority Black census tracts in Hampton Roads have about four times as many cameras as majority white tracts.
- High-poverty areas contain more than double the number of cameras compared with low-poverty areas, and 70% Black tracts can have nearly eight times their camera share relative to population share.
- Highest concentrations appear near Norfolk State University and in historically redlined neighborhoods such as Huntersville and Berkley.
- Police say camera placement is driven by crime data and limited resources, while researchers warn such placement can reinforce historical biases.
- Most captured images are of routine movements, prompting privacy and Fourth Amendment questions and calls for more transparency about camera locations and data use.