July 8, 2025 ATF Access to RPD License Plate Readers Terminated In June, administrators of the Richmond Police Department’s license plate reader program learned an analyst with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had been granted access to the RPD system and had made queries for immigration enforcement in violation of RPD’s operational standards. The ATF analyst’s access was immediately terminated and, moving forward, no federal agencies will have access to RPD’s license plate reader program. “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,” said RPD Chief Rick Edwards. “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.”
![Facts and details:
The ATF analyst requested access to the RPD license plate reader program on
February 7, 2025, to “assist our agents and TFOs [Task Force Officers] with
investigations in and around Richmond.”
At that time of their request, the ATF was not actively involved with immigration
enforcement.
The RPD administrator of the program granted access to the ATF analyst.
The RPD administrator of the program has since separated from the department.
In March 2025, the mission of the ATF changed to include immigration enforcement.
In early March, four detainees from an ICE detention facility in Farmville, Virginia
escaped. In the effort to assist the investigation, the ATF analyst made numerous
inquiries to RPD’s license plate reader program in an effort to apprehend the
escapees.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7keeiuhmqfxim42c6tibwvzw/bafkreihhx5n2wbr25u5wanaadiofvolpgi5iudw4gp4ryb4uh5bhs6fa2m@jpeg)
Facts and details: The ATF analyst requested access to the RPD license plate reader program on February 7, 2025, to “assist our agents and TFOs [Task Force Officers] with investigations in and around Richmond.” At that time of their request, the ATF was not actively involved with immigration enforcement. The RPD administrator of the program granted access to the ATF analyst. The RPD administrator of the program has since separated from the department. In March 2025, the mission of the ATF changed to include immigration enforcement. In early March, four detainees from an ICE detention facility in Farmville, Virginia escaped. In the effort to assist the investigation, the ATF analyst made numerous inquiries to RPD’s license plate reader program in an effort to apprehend the escapees.
Overall, the ATF analyst queried 49 unique license plates receiving over 400 results to those inquiries. Over a quarter of the results received related to the incident in Farmville. The cases involved in the ATF analyst’s queries were a mixture of a) cases that the ATF traditionally investigates with RPD and other partners, e.g. firearms offenses and/or violent crime, regardless of a subject’s immigration status (35 of the 49 unique license plates) and b) cases that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) pursues regarding immigration enforcement (14 of the 49 unique license plates). According to the ATF, all of those cases in the second group involved individuals that had committed a crime or had a criminal background. The analyst did not include the name of the state for a license plate query which produced a result from a different state for the same license plate numbers and letters. According to the ATF, all queries made using the system were for investigations in the state of Virginia. Pursuant to the new Virginia law taking effect on July 1, 2025, other states no longer have connections to Virginia license plate information. 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. Within five minutes of the new RPD administrator recognizing the ATF analyst had access to the RPD system and was using it in violation to RPD guidelines, the administrator terminated the ATF analyst’s access to the system. An immediate audit was conducted to ensure no other federal partner or other user outside of RPD personnel had access to the license plate reader program. No other user was found to have access. The new administrator began an internal investigation on how and when access was granted to the ATF analyst by the previous, departed manager. Last…
“We value our partnership with the Richmond Police Department and regret that this situation occurred,” said 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.” “It is frustrating this occurred. However, I appreciate ATF’s willingness to acknowledge what happened and clarify the nature of the searches,” said Chief Edwards. “We remain committed to working with our federal partners on the investigation and prosecution of violent crime. But moving forward, no federal agencies will have access to our license plate reader program. This tool is vital to solving serious crimes in our city, and we will ensure it is used lawfully, responsibly, and in alignment with Richmond’s values.”
NEW: Approximately 1hr after I submitted an inquiry to Richmond Police Department asking if the city's Flock Safety ALPR data had been shared with/accessed by feds, a spokesperson issued a statement acknowledging an ATF "analyst" in June "had made queries for immigration enforcement." Full release:
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