A mayoral candidate and longtime Dumfries councilman demanded to know where attendees lived during a public town hall on license-plate cameras Thursday night — then told people from outside the tiny town to stop weighing in.
Councilman Brian K. Fields, who is running against Mayor Derrick R. Wood, interrupted the discussion on Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers and called for a show of hands from people who actually live inside the incorporated Town of Dumfries.
“By show of hands, who lives in the incorporated town of Dumfries in this row, if you don’t mind sharing? There is a difference. By address,” Fields said, according to a recording of the meeting. He pressed at least one person for a street name before continuing.
He then told non-residents they could speak but should not drive the decision.
“If you live outside the town of Dumfries, you can have your say, but let Dumfries handle Dumfries business,” Fields said. “Let the voters decide what goes on here in the town of Dumfries, not this outside influence that is a lot of negative.”
The town covers roughly 1.6 square miles and has about 6,000 residents. Interstate 95 and Route 1 run through or alongside it, so thousands of non-residents drive through every day. The cameras the town paused were intended to capture plates of vehicles entering and leaving those corridors.
The Oct. 15 meeting was the second of three public hearings ordered after the Town Council voted 4-2 on Sept. 1 to take down eight Flock cameras before they were ever turned on. A third hearing is set for Nov. 14. An online survey on the town website has so far drawn a large percentage of responses against the cameras, Wood said at the end of the night.
Fields has used similar language before. During earlier debates over The Rose gaming resort, he told people who did not live in Dumfries to stay out of the town’s business. As InsideNoVa reported in 2021, Fields said critics of the project “are on the other side of the county” and added, “let Dumfries handle Dumfries business. … If you’re on the other side of the county, take care of your business over there.”
He has also drawn an ethics warning from the council this election cycle after a campaign video titled “Brian Fields 4 Mayor of Dumfries” was filmed inside the council chambers, as Potomac Local News previously reported. In 2023, Fields shouted at a resident during a council meeting, declaring “We are doing a damn good job here” before temporarily walking out.
At Thursday’s meeting, Fields also defended Dumfries police officers against criticism of the technology and said the town should not wait until a serious crime happens before giving them the tool. Other speakers raised concerns about false-positive alerts in other jurisdictions and the risk of high-risk stops. Police Chief Vernon Galyen said officers would still have to verify a plate, vehicle description, and driver before stopping anyone based on a Flock alert.
No vote was taken. The cameras remain dark until the council acts again.
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