Council adopts Richmond Police Department’s 2024 military equipment report; asks for broader notice and future data on uses

The Richmond City Council voted to accept the Richmond Police Department’s 2024 military equipment annual report, determine that the department complied with its military equipment policy and state law, and renew the city ordinance that authorizes the department’s policy. Council members also unanimously added a direction asking staff to provide broader community notice for next year’s community engagement meeting and to include location and demographic data in next year’s report, subject to details to be worked out by mutual agreement.

Chief Bisa French presented the department report and said the agency supported the intent of state law (AB 481) to increase transparency around a narrow set of law enforcement equipment. “We fully support the intent behind AB 4 81,” Chief French told the council, and described how department staff had collected and summarized usages, training costs and inventory counts in the report.

What the report shows: the department reported inventory and use numbers for equipment categorized by state law. Key figures in the report:

- Unmanned aerial systems (drones): 8 total in inventory; 59 recorded uses in 2024. - Tactical robot: 1. - Mobile command vehicle (mutual aid deployments reported separately): 1 used under mutual aid authority. - Patrol rifles in inventory: 82 rifles (department reported roughly 55,000 rounds of rifle ammunition on hand). - Diversionary devices (flashbangs): 20 in inventory, 18 uses recorded in 2024. - Chemical agents: listed in inventory; the report records 13 instances of use in 2024. - Less‑lethal launchers and munitions: 17 less‑lethal shotguns, 10 40‑mm launchers and 1,100 impact rounds; five deployments recorded. - Expenditure totals for the reporting year: approximately $62,139.90 in equipment purchases and $32,313.52 in training costs.

Captain Lopez described a new internal tallying process the department created this year after council feedback: when patrol rifles are taken out of vehicles or otherwise displayed for an incident, a supervisor records the deployment in an electronic form that will be tallied into annual AB 481 reporting. The department said the new field on internal forms – “patrol rifle display only” – will be used to produce an annual roll‑up of rifle displays.

Council members asked for more data and transparency. Council Member Wilson asked whether the report could capture additional costs beyond acquisition and formal training, and whether maintenance, storage and staffing costs could be tracked in future reports: “Are there other costs associated with these and is it possible to track them and put them in a report?” she asked. Captain Lopez and staff said some of those line items are harder to separate in current accounting systems but agreed to explore ways to present a fuller cost picture in later reports.

Community members and oversight commission participants urged greater outreach and data in future presentations. Marisol Cantu, who said she served on the city’s Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, told the council that two community meetings advertised for the report drew no attendees and urged better advance coordination with the Community Police Review Commission and other local groups. “In previous years, the chief had worked with council members and shared and brought in community members … The chief never brought this up at the Community Police Review Commission,” Cantu said during public comment.

Council action: In addition to accepting the statutory AB 481 report and renewing the related municipal ordinance and policy, council voted unanimously on a companion direction asking the police department to 1) provide the Community Police Review Commission, the mayor’s office and the council with at least two weeks’ notice before next year’s community engagement meeting and 2) work to include, by mutual agreement, location and racial/ethnic demographic information in the 2025 AB 481 report so the city can better analyze where and on whom regulated equipment is being used. The council acknowledged tradeoffs and privacy considerations; staff will return with a proposed format to balance transparency with privacy and ongoing investigations.

Ending: The votes close the 2024 reporting cycle under AB 481 while directing the department to expand outreach and to examine how to present richer cost, location and demographic information in next year’s report. The city’s action does not add new equipment; staff said no new acquisitions are planned before council approval, and any future purchases would return to council for authorization.