Daily Herald opinion: Driving home the message: Illinois must put the brakes on improper access to license plate readers
News that Mount Prospect’s automated license-plate reader system had been improperly accessed to search for a Texas woman who’d had an abortion inspired both indignation and, especially in the early reports, a temptation toward finger-pointing.
Additional revelations regarding hundreds of illegal searches tied to immigration involving access to Illinois cameras added fuel to the fire since license-plate reader searches related to both hot-button issues are prohibited by Illinois law.
In response, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced last week that 46 out-of-state agencies were blocked from accessing Flock Safety's Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) system.
Mount Prospect, meanwhile, has scrambled to explain how the searches happened in the first place.
Officials say the police department did not initiate or participate in the searches. However, Mount Prospect’s ALPR settings opted into a “National Lookup” feature, which provided a gateway into Illinois’ system. The village has acknowledged that a lack of education and communication played a part, and officials have since disabled nationwide access. Flock too needs to be clear and more transparent about what the feature enables.
As details emerged, blame took a backseat to figuring out how Illinois can prevent further breaches.
The Secretary of State’s office also contacted the Illinois attorney general’s office for any possible criminal charges and is setting up an audit system with extra safeguards to make sure law enforcement agencies using ALPRs in Illinois follow state law.
It is vital that officials on the state and local level work together to get whatever changes are needed in place.
“This is not about banging on Mount Prospect,” Giannoulias said during a press conference last week. “This is about more broadly making sure that law enforcement agencies in Illinois follow the law and don't give out personal data for reasons that should not be allowed.”
This week, Arlington Heights temporarily blocked outside law enforcement agencies from accessing its data.
The cameras, used the right way, can be an important law enforcement tool. Picture, for example, the implications of being able to track a fleeing mass shooter before additional lives are lost or to apprehend a sexual predator on the run with a child.
But there are serious privacy issues involved as well, and suburbanites need to know that the cameras are being used to track violent criminals and not the movements of a woman seeking private medical care.
The situation involving Mount Prospect was fraught from the start, combining a hot-button political issue with states on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
The call started in Texas, a red state where abortion is highly restricted. And the incident hit home here in Illinois, a blue state known as a Midwestern abortion haven.
Where you fall on the abortion issue can’t help but color how you view what happened and the questions left in the wake.
Were law enforcement officials searching for the woman solely because her family feared for her safety? Or were they tracking her because she’d had a “self-administered” abortion and might seek follow-up care in another state?
Where does protecting the public from undisputed danger leave off and differing views about the right to privacy kick in?
These can be tough questions. Giannoulias is right to seek answers and propose guardrails that address any gaps or ambiguities. The aim should be to prevent breaches — and to know where to point fingers should one occur.