When Evanston announced it would break off its contract with Flock Safety — a surveillance technology company operating a system of license-plate reading cameras — in an Aug. 27 news release, months of public scrutiny largely subsided.
Over the summer, local advocates, politicians and officials weighed the risks of using license-plate recognition technology against their aid in criminal investigations, with most worries stemming from concerns of federal agents accessing the data to inform immigration enforcement operations and target out-of-state individuals seeking abortion access.
Per the city’s news release, Evanston planned to terminate its contract with Flock on Friday — one month after the city gave notice and deactivated its 19 Flock cameras.
During the 30-day period between the termination notice and its effective date, cameras were removed, and the city said it halted data collection and sharing.
Then, residents began to notice the cameras had returned.
In recent weeks, Flock reinstalled stationary cameras around the city, sparking a cease-and-desist order from the city Sept. 18.
In a statement to The Daily, a Flock spokesperson said the company plans to uninstall the cameras while conversations with the city continue. The cameras are not currently active, the spokesperson confirmed.
The city’s August announcement came mere days after an audit by the Illinois Secretary of State and longstanding public outcry surrounding the potential repercussions of collecting and sharing license plate data, especially as it relates to federal immigration enforcement.
In an Aug. 25 news release, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said his office found Flock to have violated state law by allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection to access data from license plate cameras in Illinois.
“The findings of the Illinois Secretary of State’s audit, combined with Flock’s admission that it failed to establish distinct permissions and protocols to ensure local compliance while running a pilot program with federal users, are deeply troubling,” the Evanston news release reads.
Illinois law prohibits sharing license plate reader data to state or local agencies for detaining or investigating someone based on immigration status. Locally, Evanston’s Welcoming City Ordinance was updated in January to include a ban on “the sharing of city databases or information with federal immigration agencies, or with third parties unless they certify against its use for civil immigration enforcement.”
Flock has refuted the idea that it violated state law. In a statement to The Daily, a Flock spokesperson said the city’s decision stems from “common public misconceptions.”
“To be clear, no basis for any allegations that Flock broke the law in IL, or any other state, has been shared with us to date,” the statement reads. “We have requested the opportunity to address the City’s concerns directly and hope to be able to engage in that discussion soon.”
Flock license-plate recognition technology is used to track vehicle data and assist law enforcement in criminal investigations. The vendor also allows private entities, like homeowners associations and businesses, to purchase cameras and access networked data.
Flock has more than 80,000 active license-plate readers in the U.S. and claims to collect tens of billions of points of vehicle data every month. Some advocates have raised concerns about the vulnerability of this data and its undisclosed use by federal agencies.
“There’s so many ways in which data lingers and isn’t accounted for — It is very easily leveraged for nefarious purposes by actors with bad interests,” said Sarah Hamid, associate director of activism at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “There’s a massive data security risk.”
People aren’t able to tell if the data has been accessed or breached, Hamid said.
Such concerns peaked in Evanston earlier in the summer. In June, City Council and the Evanston Police Department responded to concerns after an Evanston RoundTable report that at least seven out-of-state agencies tracking license plates for immigration enforcement had accessed information about Evanston through Flock’s national lookup tool.
“I’m personally uncomfortable using it because of how powerful a law enforcement tool it is — unless we are absolutely certain that none of that data will ever be used to sell out Evanston residents or people traveling through Evanston relative to immigration, reproductive care, gender-affirming care or anything else,” Mayor Daniel Biss said of the national search tool at the meeting.
The city first contracted Flock in 2022. The contract was last renewed in 2024 and intended to stretch into 2029. The city’s 19 cameras included 18 stationary, pole-mounted cameras and one “Flex” mobile camera, according to the renewal memo.
In the memo, EPD told City Council that Flock technology was of “tremendous value” to police operations. The cameras assisted in identifying vehicles involved in hit-and-runs, tracking stolen vehicles and even investigating a homicide in 2023, EPD wrote in the memo.
“Flock helps law enforcement solve crimes and make communities safer, and we are proud of the results we have achieved in partnership with the Evanston PD,” Flock wrote in a statement to The Daily. “We hope that after a constructive discussion about the City’s concerns, we can continue to do that in Evanston.”
Evanston is not alone in splitting with the surveillance technology vendor.
Nearby Oak Park, Illinois has also ended its contract with Flock this year, as have Denver and Austin, Texas. Similarly, residents in Santa Cruz County and Norfolk, Virginia have begun organizing to remove Flock license-plate readers from their communities. Flock has continually reaffirmed the legality of their operation nationwide.
“Communities are recognizing the threat that these vehicular surveillance systems pose and they are saying no, and that no is contagious,” Hamid said. “I think that that no is contagious both for different cities across the country, but also private retailers and homeowners associations who are recognizing that by opting into this security system, they’re putting their community at mass amounts of risk.”
In a Friday statement to The Daily, a city spokesperson said they expect the cameras to be removed before the end of next week. Flock and the city are “still in discussions pertaining to the City’s termination of the contract.”
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
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