This Operating Manual for the Richmond Police Metro Aviation Unit, a tri-county alliance between Richmond, Chesterfield, and Henrico Police, was obtained in 2012. The MAU is responsible for the notoriously loud "police plane" known for circling at low altitudes over public areas in Richmond. The Operating Manual reads: "The Metro Aviation Unit will provide aerial observation and support to all elements of the Police Department... The aircraft should not circle a location over long periods of time."
"The Richmond Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency serving over 222,071 people within 62.5 square miles of jurisdiction within the city of Richmond, Virginia. By adopting City Code § 27-131, the City has established a traffic signal enforcement program pursuant to the authority granted to the City by Virginia Code § 15.2-968.1.
Pursuant to this traffic signal enforcement program, the City has the authority to issue civil penalties for red light violations captured on photo
monitoring system... The City intends to monitor up to 22 intersections using the Photo Monitoring Systems, and the City may require each intersection to have from one to six approaches monitored."
On August 2, 2022, a Notice of Sole Source Award was posted on the City of Richmond eVA Procurement website following a request for proposal. The document stated that it had awarded a contract to ComSonics, Inc. for the Genetec Auto Vu License Plate Recognition (LLPR) System. License plate readers are a controversial technology used by law enforcement agencies such as the City of Richmond Police.
OpenOversightVA was the first to post this document outlining policy violations by several Richmond Police officers during the 2020 period of civil unrest, one of whom left while the investigation into his conduct was ongoing and took a job with the Virginia State Police, where he killed Xzavier Hill just a few months later.