At least 10 law enforcement agencies across West Virginia have already installed Flock Safety's automated license plate reader cameras on public roads, and there is still no state law governing how they can be used. Local police departments are left to write their own rules, one patchwork policy at a time.

Meanwhile, the company behind the technology has repeatedly dodged direct questions from state lawmakers. When Del. Tristan Leavitt asked a Flock Safety lobbyist how the company backs up its marketing claim of "99% accuracy" in reading plates, the answer was that it came from "surveys and things like that with customers," not real performance data, according to Mountain State Spotlight. Lawmakers have also asked Flock for its 2025 false positive numbers and details on past security exposures. So far, the company has answered with vague corporate letters instead of the records lawmakers requested.

The stakes are not hypothetical. National reporting has documented drivers wrongly pulled over, detained, or jailed because a license plate camera misread a plate, including one woman wrongfully arrested in a fatal hit-and-run case in Florida. Without independent audits or state oversight, West Virginia drivers have no guarantee the same mistake will not happen here.

The West Virginia Legislature should not wait for a subpoena fight to drag on before setting basic guardrails: independent accuracy audits, clear rules on data sharing and retention, and public reporting on false positives and security incidents, before any more departments expand their use of this technology.

Sign the petition to demand the West Virginia Legislature pass statewide license plate reader camera rules now, before another driver pays the price for an unaudited system.