# License plate camera company changes rules after learning of loophole used to help ICE
# Next 9NEWS — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRjWbijieNk

We have turned on an immigration filter in
Colorado.
It
searches on the Loveland Police
Department's Flock automated license plate reader account
that ultimately prompted a lengthy response
from Loveland's police chief Tim Duran.
Every search in the system requires a search reason.
Flock
rep Holly Bellin says searches done by an
ATF agent using Loveland's flock account in April.
would have been blocked if they happened today.
If that search reason is immigration or ICE,
that search will be automatically flagged and then blocked
from being conducted on Colorado LPR cameras.
Some agencies like Loveland choose to share the
data they collect into a searchable national database,
but an audit in April shows a Loveland
police account ran multiple searches in the database,
marking the reason as ICE.
Loveland Police says it gave the ATF access to its account,
and the ATF confirmed an ATF agent ran the searches.
The ATF is not a flock customer,
but says the searches were done for ICE,
for a violent offender.
Colorado law does allow personal information to be shared
if it's part of a criminal investigation,
Chief Duran.
Backed up the department's decision Friday in a Facebook post and said 9
News is reporting quote misled readers and
viewers by implying the Loveland Police Department
allowed immigration searches through police
department flock safety camera access.
Duran's nearly 800 word post did not dispute the
ATF was running searches for ICE on Loveland's account.
Duran has not accepted any of Nine News' 3 requests for interviews,
including for this story.
His post criticized a line from a previous Nine News story
that said immigration agents are not supposed to have direct access to the network,
which is accurate.
He says Nine News was suggesting the
department was violating Colorado laws and said,
quote,
This is patently false.
No federal agency that does direct immigration
enforcement
has a direct access or contract with FO.