* Daily Herald…
In another sign of the growing public angst over automated license plate readers, members of a Warrenville citizens group are gathering signatures to place an advisory question on the April ballot asking that the city’s 14 Flock cameras be removed.
Warrenville’s contract with Flock Safety ends in 2028. But the anti-Flockers have asked the council to stop using the cameras now and not include money in next year’s budget to pay for the system, which costs $37,500 a year, according to city documents.
The Warrenville City Council amended its ALPR policy in September to cut the time data collected from the cameras is retained from 30 days to 14 days. […]
The referendum effort is the latest public uprising against ALPRs in the suburbs. Last month, the Kane County Sheriff’s Office removed its cameras from the Mill Creek subdivision near Geneva at the request of the local homeowner’s association.
Suburbs including Evanston, Oak Park, Berwyn and Homer Glen have either ended or paused their use of ALPRs, and residents in communities including Rolling Meadows, Mundelein and Woodstock have urged their town leaders to do the same.
* The North Shore Record…
Highland Parkers have joined a growing nationwide movement challenging the use of Flock Safety license-plate-reading cameras.
With more than 1,000 signatures on a DeFlock Lake County petition, as of Wednesday, Nov. 4, community members are calling for the removal of the city’s automated license plate readers and raising concerns over privacy, data collection and surveillance. […]
The group will be addressing the Highland Park City Council on Monday, Nov. 9, to share their petition.
If the petition receives 1,600 local signatures, the group will seek to add a referendum on the April 2027 election ballot with the question, “Shall the City of Highland Park discontinue its use of networked and artificial intelligence-based surveillance camera systems, and thereafter be barred from procuring or contracting for the same. Yes or No?”
* Riverside Landmark…
Opponents of Flock automatic license plate reader technology in Riverside notched a win at Thursday’s village board meeting.
Riverside’s two Flock cameras — one located at the intersection of Longcommon Road and Byrd Road and the other on Burlington Street just west of Harlem Avenue — were turned off Thursday, Nov. 5, following a 4-2 vote from the village board to immediately cease the use of the hardware.
Trustees Cristin Evans, Joseph Fitzgerald, Jill Mateo and Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga voted to turn the cameras off while trustees Alex Gallegos and Elizabeth Kos voted to keep them on. […]
The board authorized the installation of three replacement Verkada remote mobile cameras by Griffon Systems Inc. in an earlier 4-2 vote. Fitzgerald, Gallegos, Mateo and Kos voted in favor of installing the new cameras while Evans and Marsh-Ozga voted against the proposal.
* Daily Southtown…
Will County Board member Destinee Ortiz, a Romeoville Democrat, has submitted two proposals that would prohibit license plate cameras, such as the widely used Flock cameras, on county property and another resolution to put a temporary moratorium on data center developments. […]
There will not be action Thursday on whether board members support the resolutions. […]
Ortiz was one of eight board members to vote against intergovernmental agreements that allowed several municipalities to use the county’s rights of way for Flock cameras in August. The eight opposing members included four Republicans and four Democrats.
During the meeting, several police chiefs cited benefits of Flock cameras while residents in attendance said they were concerned about an invasion of privacy and potential misuse.
* Sun-Times…
In Cicero, where Flock has a number of cameras monitoring traffic, the Atlanta company has given several campaign contributions to Town President Larry Dominick, who oversees public safety in the near west suburb. […]
The first contribution to the Cicero Voters Alliance (The Larry Dominick Team) was for $1,000, made in 2021, according to Illinois State Board of Elections records.
In 2022 another $1,000 arrived from Flock, while in 2024 the company gave $2,000. […]
Dominick appears to be the only local municipal leader to have received Flock campaign cash so far. But the company did donate to two candidates for sheriff in the collar counties. […]
Flock officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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