Newbille silent on feds accessing RPD data for "immigration enforcement"

On July 8th, the Richmond Police Department announced that a federal agent had accessed data from the city’s Flock Safety devices for the purposes of “immigration enforcement” in June in a violation of the department’s “operational standards” and the controversial surveillance-tech firm’s own policies.

The agent was officially employed by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), one of the many federal agencies that the Trump administration has pressed into service aiding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raiders targeting people, including US citizens, for detention and deportation based on their occupation, appearance, or spoken language. These attacks (at least one of which has turned deadly) are already happening in Chesterfield County. There’s nothing stopping them from happening in Richmond, or even within Church Hill. If anything, RPD’s Flock system, which uses artificial intelligence to create a searchable trove of video footage from always-on cameras placed on those slender black posts you see around the neighborhood,¹ has made it easier for federal forces and Trump-aligned state and municipal allies to coordinate future assaults.

This rapidly evolving, deeply dystopian moment calls for strong local leadership to hold RPD accountable and reevaluate whether Flock’s purported benefits to Church Hill and Richmond outweigh its potentially lethal costs. But the 7th District’s longtime representative on City Council, Cynthia Newbille, isn’t even picking up the phone.

The Lookout contacted Newbille, who has served as the East End’s voice on City Council since 2009 and currently serves as the body’s president, four times since RPD’s explosive admission on July 8th. Two inquiries to her official city email address, with liaison Samuel Patterson copied, went unanswered. Two voicemails, one left at her office and one on the line Patterson lists as a backup on the office line’s inbox recording, also received no response. A review of Newbille’s official Facebook page turned up no acknowledgement of the ATF’s illicit Flock access; her two posts there since July 8th have been reposts of old photo opportunities.

Newly reelected Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin, who sung praises for Flock’s ALPRs in an April 2025 interview with The Lookout, did not respond to two emailed requests for comment. Her official Facebook page is void of any mention of the breach; in early 2025, her office put out an undated statement entitled “Commonwealth will not aid Mass Deportation plan,” which bears no mention of ALPRs.² Beyond the July 8th statement, which RPD issued approximately one hour after my emailed inquiry, the department has not responded, either.

In the RPD’s July 8th statement, Chief Rick Edwards struck a stern tone. “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,” he said.³ “[M]oving forward, no federal agencies will have access to our license plate reader program.” Richmond’s top cop added that Flock’s automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and gunshot audio sensors are “vital to solving serious crimes in our city,” a contention he also made last November when The Lookout first revealed the city’s nearly $400,000 contract with the for-profit Atlanta-based firm.

Independent analyses of Flock’s accuracy and utility in other cities suggest the tech is far less effective than the company and proponents like Edwards insist. But regardless of whether the ALPRs are useful at solving neighborhood crime, they’re clearly useful to the Trump administration in its anti-constitutional purge of nonwhite people. Earlier this month, the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO published a report indicating that feds had accessed Flock’s surveillance data in at least five Virginia jurisdictions (not including Richmond) for the purposes of immigration enforcement. That reporting built on 404 Media’s own alarming scoop in June showing that ICE was having pliant local law enforcement officers run searches on Flock footage nationwide.

Striking a balance between public safety and personal liberty is a fundamental challenge even in less politically fraught moments. But with federal forces marching through American cities, violently detaining and disappearing people with the help of a taxpayer-funded, AI-enabled surveillance system, those scales have tipped heavily to the right. Richmond’s leaders must do what they can to rebalance them. This requires reexamining their endorsements of ALPRs, given the technology is now being abused exactly how privacy advocates and civil libertarians warned it would be. Before that, though, they must make it clear to their constituents that they object to this abuse. It’s a low bar, but here in the 7th District, Council President Newbille has yet to clear it.

📜 Possum Poetry

Possum Poetry is original verse written exclusively for The Lookout by Penelope Poubelle, the Lookout’s litter critter-at-large. If you spot roadside trash you’d like her to immortalize in doggerel, email a photo to [email protected]. All submissions anonymous!

🎨 More paint for the safe street Mosby ain’t

In April, the children of Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School did some volunteer work, painting a section of Mosby St. with bright, multi-colored murals in hopes of beautifying the neighborhood and (maybe) slowing down drivers that routinely speed on Union Hill’s north/south artery. That project was part of Richmond Department of Public Works’ (DPW) “Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper” initiative, which is designed to curb dangerous driving as much as possible with viable short-term fixes while city leaders gather the funds—and, crucially, political will—to implement more effective and permanent long-term solutions.

On Sunday, DPW is headed back Union Hill to give Mosby St. another paint job, this time at P St. (Thanks to the tipster that passed along the mural schematic, above.) But school is out for the summer, so they’ll need volunteers from the neighborhood to take up brushes from 8-11am to get ‘er done. If you’re interested, sign up here.

🍆 Has anybody eaten the forbidden street squash?

In early June, I reported on the neighborhood’s new “street squash” plants, which seemed then to be bursting forth from every other tree well in the general vicinity of Libby Hill Park. From June 6th:

Well, it’s now mid-July, and around the neighborhood, there’s street squash to be picked. I snapped the photo above at the corner of E. Franklin and N. 29th Sts. just the other day. I mean, just look at that thing! Would you eat the forbidden Church Hill street squash?

Foragers in the neighborhood, weigh in! And again, if anybody knows why Church Hill is overrun with street squash, by all means, let your humble Lookout editor know.

📢 Happenings on The Hill

• Puppy party: You read that right. Fat Rabbit is hosting Hound Town and Beagles & Bentleys this Saturday (7/19) from 11am-1pm for some sort of combination dog/pastry fundraising event. Details here.

• Commit to Kölsch: Triple Crossing is throwing a day party in honor of Cologne’s eminently drinkable lager/ale hybrid next Saturday (7/26), and tickets are on sale now. Grab yours.

• Submit your CHill Photos: As a reminder, The Lookout features amateur photography of the neighborhood at the bottom of every edition. My hopper is running a little low, so if you’ve got a good snap you’d like to share, send it in! Email me.

Happenings on The Hill is a digital bulletin board for events, causes, and other items of interest to East Enders that don’t necessarily merit full editorial treatment. Got something for a future edition? Email the relevant details, links, etc. to [email protected] for consideration!

📸 A Very CHill Photo

Want to share your Very CHill Photo from the neighborhood? Email it to [email protected] with your name as you’d like it to appear for publication, and the camera you shot it on.

1  Flock Safety makes multiple pieces of hardware that RPD has installed throughout the city, and many of those black posts are topped by Flock’s “gunshot detection” devices, rather than cameras. The two types of devices work in tandem in the company’s surveillance networks. This past November, RPD’s Edwards declined to say how many cameras the department was operating in the East End, or where. The open-source mapping project DeFlock indicates there are at least six cameras in our area; VCIJ/WHRO reported there are 97 cameras in Richmond overall.

2  During her most recent campaign, McEachin also showcased information cards her office had written up in English and Spanish to advise residents of their rights when encountering immigration forces, which The Lookout reported on at the time. Again, no ALPR mentions, but semi-germane nonetheless.

3  Per RPD’s release, “ATF states that no apprehensions occurred solely off the information obtained by the ATF analyst using the RPD license plate reader technology.” An ATF agent quoted in the release, Anthony Spotswood, insisted that “all queries were related to criminal activity, not civil immigration enforcement.”