NORFOLK — The Virginia Court of Appeals this week reversed a Norfolk judge’s ruling that tossed evidence gathered with the use of Flock Safety cameras.

The ruling marked the first time a Virginia higher court has weighed in on the surveillance system that’s grown dramatically over the past few years, experts said.

In April, Norfolk Circuit Court Judge Jamilah D. LeCruise ruled in an attempted rape case that a police detective should have gotten a search warrant to access the city’s Flock Safety system, which includes 172 cameras. Because he did not do that, she ruled, Norfolk prosecutors couldn’t use as evidence either the Flock photographs or statements the defendant made when he was confronted about them.

Prosecutors appealed, and a three-judge panel at the Court of Appeals disagreed

See Full Page