APD Stops Sharing Flock Data With VA Agencies That Cooperate With ICE: Report

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Alexandria’s automated license plate reader cameras are no longer accessible to any Virginia law enforcement agency whose officers are deputized to enforce federal immigration law during routine patrols, according to a new report.

According to the Alexandria Brief, 11 state agencies have recently disappeared from the city’s Flock Safety sharing list. Each of those agencies has a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, meaning their officers are deputized to interview people about their immigration status, to check DHS databases, to issue immigration detainers to hold individuals until ICE takes custody, to transfer noncitizens into ICE custody and other perform other immigration-enforcement tasks.

The city’s Flock Safety Portal currently lists 141 agencies as having access to its data, according to the report.

Police Chief Tarrick McGuire told the City Council his department had the ability to block localities with those agreements in a meeting on Sept. 8.

The cameras are a matter of heated debate in Northern Virginia and around the country. The town of Dumfries recently voted to block eight new cameras that were set to go live in September. Several members of Alexandria’s City Council have called for the city to abandon use of the cameras.

Read more from the Alexandria Brief here.