Richmond police chief Rick Edwards said in a press release Tuesday afternoon that data from the department’s license plate reader program was used to assist with immigration enforcement, in violation of the department’s policy. The cameras in question are made by Flock Safety, and their legality has previously been upheld in federal court. Church Hill Lookout writer Dave Infante keeps a map of their locations locally. A report from WHRO revealed that Chesterfield County has also used its database to assist with immigration enforcement.

The only location specified in a new policy concerning professional development considered at Monday’s Fredericksburg City School Board meeting was Virginia. But school board member Jarvis Bailey (at-large) asserted that the proposed policy, which would require approval for school board members prior to attending conferences and other events, was motivated by his attendance at out-of-state conferences, including one such trip to Hawaii. “Much of this was precipitated, in my opinion, by back-office conversations about me going to Hawaii, or the way I went COSSBA [a national conference in Atlanta],” Bailey said during discussion of policy BHB1. Bailey also revealed that he’s received detailed Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests specific to his recent travels for professional development — including for rental-car expenses — insinuating that the queries were the result of frustration among staff and/or colleagues.

The window for Martinsville Sheriff’s Deputy Reva Keen to respond to a federal civil rights suit filed by city council member Aaron Rawls has closed, according to recently filed court documents. A clerk’s entry of default, a document signifying that the defendant has failed to defend or otherwise respond to the suit, was filed July 1 in federal court in Danville. The suit stems from Rawls’ removal from a March city council meeting. In the complaint, he says that his constitutional rights and his privileges as a locally elected official were violated. Keen is a codefendant with Martinsville City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides, who the suit claims initiated the incident by signaling to Keen to remove Rawls. Ferrell-Benavides has filed a response to the suit in which she disputes the majority of Rawls’ claims.

For several years, a Rhode Island public records reform bill has been introduced to the General Assembly, and each time it gets a hearing, several public bodies write to oppose the bill or express their concerns. The Department of Environmental Management is regularly one of those bodies, writing in a May letter that the reforms would create additional burdens for the agency. DEM and nine other state agencies cited increased workload in their letters of concern or opposition to the bill, which would have expanded the definition of public records and tried to tamp down on some of the fees agencies charge, among other reforms.