Bobby Richardson is the undersheriff of the Kendall County Sheriff's Office in Illinois. He joined the agency as a patrol deputy in 2007 and became undersheriff in November 2019 after assignments in patrol, investigations, training, operations and corrections. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Aurora University.
Case
Networked automated license-plate cameras can assemble searchable records of vehicle movements. Candidates and officials disagree over whether to ban the systems, keep them with limits, or defend them as investigative tools. This tracker separates outright bans from narrower restrictions.
Role at the time: Kendall County undersheriff (R) running for Kendall County sheriff
Statement summary
Bobby Richardson said the Kendall County Sheriff's Office and many municipalities have license-plate readers and that searching other agencies' cameras should rest on prior permission built on trust between agencies.
“We have several license plate readers at the Sheriff’s Office as do multiple municipalities within the county and throughout the state, I think that having the prior permission to utilize that search is something that you build with trust, with trust of other municipalities, knowing that your standards and your policies are guided in the best practices.”
The reference point is whether networked license-plate camera systems such as Flock should exist and be used. Richardson describes the Sheriff's Office's own readers and supports continued use, but says searches of other agencies' cameras should rest on prior permission and cites audits, so he backs the systems with limits rather than without them.
Statement dates: September 21, 2026
Statement dates: September 21, 2026
Statement dates: September 21, 2026
Statement dates: September 21, 2026
