ATF officials apologize after using Richmond police database for immigration enforcement

Richmond police chief Rick Edwards said in a press release Tuesday afternoon that data from the department's license plate reader program was used to assist with immigration enforcement, in violation of the department's policy.

According to the press release, as soon as the police department was tipped off to the activity, the access was immediately terminated.

“ATF is a valued partner in our efforts to combat violent crime in Richmond. But their analyst should not have been granted access to our system — and absolutely should not have used it for immigration enforcement purposes,” Edwards wrote.

“I’ve been clear with the public, with city leadership, and within this department: the Richmond Police Department does not enforce federal immigration law, and we do not investigate a person’s immigration status. If ATF had formally requested access for that purpose, I would have denied it.”

The cameras in question are made by Flock Safety, and their legality has previously been upheld in federal court. Church Hill Lookout writer Dave Infante keeps a map of their locations locally.

A report from WHRO revealed that Chesterfield County has also used its database to assist with immigration enforcement.

According to Richmond Police, access to the system was requested by an agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Feb. 2o25, before the bureau was involved with immigration enforcement. In March, the agent used the system to help locate four detainees who escaped from an ICE detention facility in Farmville.

"On June 11, the new RPD administrator received an alert from Flock Safety, the vendor of the license plate readers, that two searches from the ATF analyst inadvertently accessed Illinois vehicle data with 'ICE' in the query field which is a violation of Illinois law," the release said.

ATF officials said that no apprehensions occurred "solely off the information obtained" through the RPD system.

“We value our partnership with the Richmond Police Department and regret that this situation occurred,” wrote ATF Special Agent in Charge Anthony Spotswood. “Our ATF analyst accessed RPD’s system in support of ATF’s overall mission and although all the queries involved criminal activity, they were not in compliance with RPD’s guidelines. While our investigative analysts support both criminal and immigration-related efforts, the majority of these searches were directly tied to local investigations involving gun trafficking, violent offenders, and fraudulent firearms purchases. In one instance, a potential residency violation may have prompted the use of ‘ICE’ in a search field — but all queries were related to criminal activity, not civil immigration enforcement.”

Contact Michael Phillips at mphillips@richmonder.org.