HB1295 • 2026

Law enforcement; artificial intelligence inventory, civil action.

<p class=ldtitle>A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 1 of Chapter 1 of Title 9.1 a section numbered 9.1-116.11, relating to law enforcement; artificial intelligence inventory; civil action.</p>

Crime Technology

Enacted

This bill passed the Legislature and reached final enactment based on the latest official action.

Sponsor: Clark
Last action: 2026-02-02
Official status: Continued
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide details on how often inventories will be updated or penalties for non-compliance, leaving these points as unknowns.

Law Enforcement AI Inventory and Civil Action

This law requires Virginia's state and local police departments to list all their artificial intelligence tools used for investigations each year, and it lets people sue if these rules are broken.

What This Bill Does

Requires police agencies in Virginia to make a yearly public list of any AI systems they use for criminal investigations by November 1st.
Lists what information must be included about each AI system on the inventory: name, description, data used and produced, and authorized uses.
Gives the Attorney General permission to sue police departments if they don't follow these rules.
Allows people who live in a police department's area to sue that department if it breaks these rules.

Who It Names or Affects

State and local law enforcement agencies in Virginia
People living in areas where the law applies

Terms To Know

Artificial Intelligence System (AI system): A machine learning-based system that generates outputs like content, decisions, predictions, or recommendations.
Covered AI system: An AI system used by police for investigations, such as identifying suspects or analyzing crime patterns.

Limits and Unknowns

The bill does not specify what happens if a department fails to comply with the inventory requirements.
It is unclear how often these inventories will be updated as new AI systems are introduced.
There are no penalties specified for departments that do not make their lists public.

Bill History

2026-02-02 Communications
Subcommittee recommends continuing to 2027 (Voice Vote)
2026-02-02 Communications, Technology and Innovation
Continued to 2027 in Communications, Technology and Innovation (Voice Vote)
2026-01-29 Communications
Assigned HST sub: Communications
2026-01-15 House
Presented and ordered printed 26105299D
2026-01-15 Communications, Technology and Innovation
Referred to Committee on Communications, Technology and Innovation

Official Summary Text

Law enforcement
; artificial intelligence inventory; civil action.
Requires all law-enforcement agencies, defined in the bill as any state or local law-enforcement agency or sheriff's department, to conduct an inventory of any covered artificial intelligence system, defined in the bill, used by such agency and to make such inventory publicly available by November 1 of each year. The bill also provides that the Attorney General may investigate and, if warranted, bring a civil action against any law-enforcement agency to obtain equitable or declaratory relief to enforce the provisions of the bill and provides that a resident of the jurisdiction may bring a civil action against the law-enforcement agency to obtain equitable or declaratory relief to enforce the provisions of the bill. The bill requires such plaintiff to provide written notice of any alleged violation to the law-enforcement agency at least 90 days prior to filing suit, in a manner that is reasonably calculated to enable the law-enforcement agency to cure the alleged violation.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 1 of Chapter 1 of Title 9.1 a section numbered
9.1-116.11
, relating to law enforcement; artificial intelligence inventory; civil action.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Article 1 of Chapter 1 of Title 9.1 a section numbered
9.1-116.11
as follows:

§
9.1-116.11
. Artificial intelligence inventory by state and local law-enforcement agencies and sheriff's departments
; civil action
.

A. For the purpose of this section:

"
Artificial
i
ntelligence
system
"
or
"
AI
system
"

means any machine learning-based system that, for any explicit or implicit objective, infers from the inputs such system receives how to generate outputs, including content, decisions, predictions, and recommendations, that can influence physical or virtual environments. "Artificial intelligence system" does not include any artificial intelligence system or general purpose artificial intelligence model that is used for development, prototyping, and research activities before such artificial intelligence system or general purpose artificial intelligence model is made available to deployers or consumers.

"Covered AI
system
" means any AI
system
used to aid a law
-
enforcement investigation, including by generating a lead for further investigation or corroboration
or
by
writing
or materially aid
ing
in writing police reports or other records relating to a criminal investigation.
"Covered AI
system
" includes
technologies that perform biometric identification; forensic DNA phenotyping; forensic investigative genetic genealogy; cross-camera tracking
or other artificial intelligence-enabled location tracking
; vehicle surveillance or tracking
,
including automated license plate readers; anomaly detection; gunshot detection; person-based predictive policing; risk scoring; behavioral analysis; sentiment analysis; convoy analysis; fraud detection; analysis of financial transactions;
mobile device forensic tools; artificial intelligence-enabled data integration and analytics platforms;
and
social network or social media analysis.
"Covered AI
system
" does not include
an
AI
system
that is used for administrative tasks that do not materially impact
law-enforcement
investigations, such as productivity and document management tools, or generative AI technologies used to check spelling or grammar.

"Law-enforcement agency" includes any state or local law-enforcement agency or sheriff's department.

B.
All
law-enforcement agencies
shall
conduct an
annual
inventory of any covered AI
system
used by such agency and shall make
such inventory publicly available
by November 1 of each year.
Such inventory shall include the following information for each covered AI
system:

1. The name of each system, including the vendor and product name, if applicable;

2. A brief description of each system
'
s capabilities and limitations;

3. A brief description of the types of data inputs each system uses and outputs it produces; and

4. A brief description of authorized and unauthorized uses for each system.

C.
The Attorney General may investigate and, if warranted, bring a civil action against any law-enforcement agency to obtain equitable or declaratory relief to enforce the provisions of this section.

D
. Any person who resides within the jurisdiction of a law-enforcement agency that is subject to the requirements of this section may bring a civil action against the law-enforcement agency to obtain equitable or declaratory relief to enforce the provisions of this section. A prevailing plaintiff shall be entitled to reasonable attorney fees and costs.

No action may be commenced against a law-enforcement agency under this section unless the plaintiff has provided written notice of the alleged violation to the agency or political subdivision at least 90 days prior to filing suit, in a manner that is reasonably calculated to enable the entity to cure the alleged violation.