Council asks staff to review municipal ID privacy concerns; continues ordinance change

Richmond City Council on March 4 continued consideration of a proposed change to the municipal identification ordinance that would make city IDs available at no cost to qualifying residents. Councilmembers discussed privacy concerns raised by civil-liberties groups about data-sharing risks tied to third-party vendor processes and bank/vendor functions used by some municipal-ID programs.

Civil-liberties advocates and privacy groups warned the council in public comment that municipal-ID implementations can create data-retention and data-sharing pathways that may be accessible to federal immigration authorities. Brian Hoffer of Secure Justice urged the council not to finalize language until the city verifies vendor practices, retention policies and whether financial-transaction partners would retain or share personally identifiable information.

City staff said the municipal ID program has issued several hundred cards in past years and described the fee structure ($25 adult, $15 seniors/children) used previously; staff noted the council had already approved limited funding to cover cards for qualifying residents, but the ordinance language that would permanently remove fees requires cleanup. The council voted unanimously to continue the ordinance-change item and directed staff and the city attorney to return with a privacy and implementation analysis and recommended ordinance language. The program will continue operating while staff prepares its report.

Councilmembers asked staff to: document data flows for existing municipal-ID vendors, explain how records are stored and retained, identify any bank or debit-card partners and their retention policies, and propose guarded language that would allow free cards without creating avoidable data-sharing risks. Staff said it would work with the city attorney and return as soon as feasible; council did not set a strict date but asked staff to prioritize the analysis.