Richland Police Chief Marty Pilcher speaking at the December 16, 2025 Richland City Council meeting.
Richland officials responded to UW researchers’ findings that many municipalities in Washington had their Flock systems accessed in conflict with department policies and Washington State law.
In November, Tumbleweird wrote about the Richland Police Department and Benton County Sheriff’s Department allegedly allowing federal immigration officials in Homeland Security access to their department-owned Flock camera systems. You can read the article here: ‘Local law enforcement leaves the door wide open for ICE’.
Richland City Council
On December 16, 2025 during the Richland City Council meeting, Richland Police Chief Marty Pilcher addressed issues raised by the Tumbleweird article. Council Member Kurt Maier had contacted City Manager Jon Amundson about the matter, who then asked Chief Pilcher to address the concerns.
During the City Council meeting, Chief Pilcher said:
I’ll start my comments by saying that any fault connected to this issue is mine and mine alone. I failed to foresee that changes in the system earlier this year would allow access to federal immigration authorities, and I did not make the necessary changes to our policy which would prohibit that. We have since made those changes and eliminated that access. But again, the fault lies with me.
Pilcher went on to say that Richland has ten cameras in the city, and that Flock had updated the system in 2025 earlier in the year. “In auditing our system, the first search by border patrol occurred on May 9th, 2025, and the last search occurred on August 24th, 2025,” Pilcher explained.
Pilcher said they made changes after finding out that Border Patrol was accessing the system. Pilcher said:
We have limited the access to our cameras to the state of Washington with the understanding that other Washington agencies abide by existing laws in Washington, thus precluding federal agencies or other agencies that may be interested in immigration or have other interests that don’t ally [sic] with Washington law.
After council members asked Pilcher some follow-up questions, Pilcher gave some examples of cases in which the ALPR (Automatic License Plate Readers) helped them capture suspects, including Elias Huizar — a School Resource Officer responsible for multiple crimes against students — after he fled the scene of the shooting deaths of two people in West Richland.
Then council member Kurt Maier spoke, saying that after reading the article in Tumbleweird, he was concerned with the fact that it was a University of Washington study that caught the breach into the system by Homeland Security:
The important thing to me is that we didn’t catch it. That data was collected as part of a University of Washington study, and they identified how various agencies were accessing local, community Flock databases….
Whether or not we have automatic license plate readers is one thing; how we protect and control the data generated by them is another.
And I’ll respectfully disagree with Chief Pilcher. He honorably took personal responsibility for this, but I would argue that it is our responsibility, as well. We need to make sure that we control this data in a responsible manner.
That list of criminals captured with the assistance of this technology highlights exactly how pervasive the technology is, and the level of data that is collected. The requirement for an associated case number is a good one.* In my opinion, our data should only be shared with agencies that have similar auditing and controls regarding its access.
Failure to preserve that data and protect it from unauthorized access opens us up to liability, since that Border Patrol access that was talked about earlier is a violation of Washington State law.
Maier concluded his comments about the Flock data leaks, saying, “We need that diligence at every level. We need to keep an eye on who’s accessing our data — why and when.”
On January 14, 2026, City Attorney Heather Kintzley followed up with Tumbleweird regarding some clarifying questions we asked about the Flock breaches. When we asked for details about how our local data was accessed, Kintzley responded (in part):
As I understand it, requests from outside agencies for access to RPD’s Flock camera system appear much like a Facebook friend request. The requesting agency sends the request, and the receiving agency (RPD) has the option to accept or reject the request. If the request is promptly responded to (accepted or rejected), no communications are generated in connection with the request. If there is a delay in the receiving agency’s response to the share request, a prompt from the system will be sent that will remind the agency that the share request is pending.
In this case, to the best of my knowledge and understanding, Homeland Security’s request was promptly accepted by RPD, which meant that no additional notifications or communications were generated in connection with it. In my conversations with PRO [Public Records Officer] Toni Fulton, we are confident that all records responsive to your request have been produced.
The city attorney then reminded us that “the Public Records Act does not require the agency to provide explanations of records or to answer questions.”
Richland Police Department
Tumbleweird made a public records request to the Richland Police Department (RPD) on November 1, 2025 asking for the following:
- Any communications that occurred with the RPD after January 2025 requesting that the department switch on the Flock camera system setting that allows Homeland Security to be an authorized viewer.
- Since someone at RPD — the administrator of the local system — would have had to allow this to happen by changing the settings in the system, we asked who authorized this change, when it happened, and what was shared.
- Copies of the communications between Homeland Security and RPD regarding Flock data.
Tumbleweird received public records on January 8, 2026, which included this message from PRO Toni Fulton:
A diligent search was conducted of the City’s email archive system for records of communication related to Homeland Security’s request to access RPD’s Flock system. Because Homeland Security’s Flock Share Request was received and approved in the Flock system, no records of communication were generated related to this request/approval.
Included in the release of records was an event log showing that the RPD Flock system was accessed seven times by Homeland Security in April 2025. Another set of data that was sent by RPD shows 175 entries.**
We requested an interview with Chief Pilcher to clarify these access logs. On January 16, Pilcher contacted Tumbleweird and said he was willing to answer questions. Later in the day when he was called back, said he wanted to answer questions via email so they would be part of the public record. Tumbleweird will follow up next month with his answers.
RPD School Resource Officers
RPD employs School Resource Officers (SROs) that work in Richland schools. After recent violent incidents involving ICE in Minneapolis, including an ICE raid on Roosevelt High School there, we thought it was important to understand how our local school districts were keeping students safe. We also have heard unverified reports of ICE agents outside of local elementary schools in Richland.
On December 10, we reached out to Richland School District (RSD) to ask two questions in regards to the Flock article:
- What agreement, if any, does RSD have with their SROs regarding responsibilities to ICE or Border Patrol?
- Under the circumstances, should RSD parents be concerned that some of the SROs in their children’s schools are from law enforcement agencies that are cooperating with ICE and/or Border Patrol?
Robert Sorensen, Director of Communications and Public Relations for RSD, responded to the inquiry:
The RSD does have procedures in place for situations involving federal authorities on or near our campuses. Those procedures are available on our website and follow OSPI’s Protections for Immigrant Students in Washington’s K-12 Public Schools.
The following information addresses your specific questions, and is based on coordination with the RPD:
Agreements related to School Resource Officers (SROs) and Immigration Enforcement:
The Richland Police Department has no agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or U.S. Border Patrol related to the responsibilities of School Resource Officers. SROs assigned to Richland schools operate under clearly defined roles focused on student safety, relationship-building, crime prevention, and law-related education. Their duties do not include immigration enforcement, immigration inquiries, or assistance with federal immigration operations.
Concerns for parents regarding cooperation with ICE or Border Patrol:
Parents and guardians should not be concerned that Richland Police Department School Resource Officers are cooperating with ICE or Border Patrol in school settings. RPD does not conduct immigration enforcement activities in schools, nor do our officers inquire into or act upon a student’s immigration status. Our SROs are present solely to support a safe and supportive learning environment for all students.
The Richland Police Department is committed to upholding Washington State law, including statutes that limit local law enforcement involvement in federal immigration enforcement. Equally important, we are committed to maintaining trust with our community, particularly within schools, where students must feel safe, supported, and protected regardless of background.
Benton County Sheriff’s Office
On November 1, 2025 the following request was made to the BCSO:
All communications and associated documents regarding the Benton County Sheriff office allowing access to any federal or local government agency in 2025 with Flock cameras.
When was the decision made to allow government agencies to Flock cameras, by whom, and under what legal authority.
Are federal agencies still allowed access?
Has the department agreed to any other cooperation with federal agencies allowing electronic monitoring?
On December 3rd, Michelle Kenney, Records Specialist called Tumbleweird to clarify what we had requested. Kenney was not aware of the report from the University of Washington or the Tumbleweird article and requested a copy. That was sent to her on December 4th, 2025.
There was no further communications from BCSO until January.
A partial fulfillment of records requests made to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office was received by Tumbleweird January 13, 2026. Communications Specialist Michelle Kenney wrote:
I have attached a copy of our network audit and organizational audit for the dates of 11/15/2025 – 12/18/2025. The program we use only holds onto records for 30 days and then they are deleted. I am still working on the first portion of your request and will keep you updated when I have any responsive records available.
(Editor’s note: You can read the audits here: https://bit.ly/FlockUpdate)
We are reviewing this request and have determined that additional time is needed for the search of potentially responsive documents and legal review of exemptions under the law. Based on the above and the number of requests our office is currently processing, the records will be released to you on an installment basis.
Attached to this email is the first installment of responsive [sic] to your request. In the event any of the documents provided to you appear to be privileged or exempt, the disclosure is inadvertent, and the County does not waive any applicable exemption or privilege. If you become aware that any of the documents provided to you appear to be exempt from disclosure, please notify me immediately and promptly return the erroneously released document.
We estimate the second installment of records will be available to you by January 27th, 2026. Should this estimate need to be revised, we will notify you as soon as possible.
Tumbleweird will update this story as it develops. At this time, we have many unanswered questions and are seeking clarification.
* Many of the lookups in the audit we received do not appear to be associated with case numbers (the field labeled ‘Case #’ is blank).
** The records associated with this update can be found at https://bit.ly/FlockUpdate
A lifelong resident of Eastern Washington, Dori enjoys the outdoors, her family, and making good trouble. She has worked for many years in broadcasting and reporting and believes in the value of the 4th estate. She is a true community advocate that loves Washington.
