Why a Virginia city banned cops from sharing Flock data that could aid ICE
The city of Richmond, Virginia, says it will no longer allow data captured by its license plate reader cameras to be shared with police departments in the state that cooperate with federal immigration agencies.
Virginia state law already prohibits the sharing of license plate reader data with out-of-state police departments, including federal law enforcement agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The new guideline concerning in-state sharing comes after Richmond’s police chief announced that one of his officers had violated the existing law by providing license plate data from a homicide investigation to the FBI. Prosecutors declined to charge the officer.
Widespread pushback by community activists in Richmond mirrored nationwide opposition to the use of Flock cameras to carry out President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies. As Straight Arrow previously reported, a growing number of cities are canceling contracts with Flock amid public complaints about privacy, surveillance and the use of invasive tools to target immigrants.
As the opposition builds, a bipartisan amendment in a federal transportation bill in Congress would require cities and states to discontinue using Flock cameras and similar license plate readers or lose highway funding.
If the amendment survives in the bill’s final version, according to Wired, the cameras could be used only for collecting highway tolls.
A Virginia controversy
In Richmond, activists were calling for the city to end its contract with Flock even before the police officer shared data with the FBI. Flock maintains 99 license plate reader cameras in Richmond, Virginia’s capital.
The new limitations specifically bar the Richmond Police Department from sharing its license plate reader data with any department in Virginia that has signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE.
State and local law enforcement agencies that sign a 287(g) agreement agree to be deputized by ICE when requested to carry out immigration enforcement.
Representatives with the Richmond chapter of Democratic Socialists of America pushed for the new guidelines after a meeting with Mayor Danny Avula and Police Chief Rick Edwards. During the meeting, the activists claim, both Avula and Edwards said that even though state law prohibited sharing data with outside agencies, ICE could still access information from the city’s license plate readers because it was shared with departments across the state.
Penny Page, a Richmond DSA member who attended the meeting, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Edwards told her and other activists that there were “probably police departments who are sharing data with ICE unintentionally, because they don’t understand how the software is set up.”
“He told us that lets ICE into Flock data even without a 287(g),” she said.
A spokesperson for the city later told the newspaper that the chief did not “recall his exact words in the meeting.”
ICE, FBI want data
Supporters of the technology argue that it is an invaluable law enforcement tool. Critics say that license plate reader cameras are intrusive and cite abuses as evidence of the need for their removal.
The concerns regarding ICE are not unfounded. Police departments have been performing thousands of searches for ICE through Flock’s license plate database, despite no formal contract between ICE and Flock.
Yet while cities like Richmond are either limiting or outright banning license plate reader cameras, agencies like the FBI are attempting to further tap into the data the technology provides.
The FBI is currently offering up to $36 million to any company that can provide it with nationwide access to license plate reader data. Flock Safety is one of the only companies that could fulfill such a contract, which would allow the FBI to track vehicles without a warrant.
Round out your reading
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
