The Richmond Police Department did the right thing in pulling the plug on federal access to its license plate reader system after learning it had been misused to track down people over immigration issues.

In a statement this week, RPD said an analyst with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) tapped into the system to run searches tied to immigration violations—something the department made clear was never part of the agreement.

“Their analyst should not have been granted access to our system — and absolutely should not have used it for immigration enforcement purposes,” RPD Chief Rick Edwards stated in the release.

License plate readers track the movements of vehicles in the city, collecting data on tens of thousands of drivers every day. That’s why RPD’s policy is strict about who accesses that information.

The release includes a detailed explanation about how the analyst gained access to the system and their stated intentions for doing so. It also notes that the administrator who granted that access is no longer with the department. Good.

It’s also good to know that our police chief is not letting his department become a back door for immigration enforcement. Although the federal agency’s access was brief, it should have never happened at all. Chief Edwards made it clear that no federal agency will have access to RPD’s system going forward.

That’s what accountability looks like.

Now if only we could get the same from federal agencies like ICE — which seems to be running the most aggressive diversity initiative in government. The inclusion rate is off the charts. At this point, European immigrants must be wondering when it’s their turn.

But back to Richmond. The recent revelation is what we’ve come to expect from Edwards, who might be the only police chief who could be found guilty of oversharing. In 2023, he made a promise to release video of fatal shootings by police officers within two weeks and has kept his word, with some exceptions. He’s also been upfront about his own role in a fatal shooting in 2002, in past discussions with community members. In January, he revealed that he had been stopped by one of his own officers for speeding and admitted he was at fault.

We’re fairly certain Edwards may not be telling us everything we want to know, but he seems to take the idea of transparency more seriously than his former boss. That doesn’t mean we won’t keep asking questions. We think he’d want it that way.