Mapping ALPR Cameras in Hampton Roads
In November 2025, a federal judge unsealed a spreadsheet revealing the locations of 614 automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras operating across Hampton Roads, VA. We mapped these cameras against neighborhood racial and poverty profiles, revealing a stark pattern: ALPR surveillance is overwhelmingly concentrated in Black and high-poverty communities. This interactive map offers a data-driven look at how surveillance technologies are being deployed, and who bears their greatest burden.
Read our op-ed in the Virginia Mercury. <<ADD LINK>>
Read our full research findings. <<ADD LINK>>
Research conducted by Dr. Steven Keener (Assistant Professor of Criminology, Co-Director of the Center for Crime, Equity, and Justice, Christopher Newport University; Executive board member of Justice Forward Virginia), Dr. John C. Finn Finn (Associate Professor of Geography and Chair, Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology, Christopher Newport University), and Dr. Andrew Baird (Assistant Professor of Sociology, Christopher Newport University).
Map created by Dr. John C. Finn Finn