Rolling Meadows council threatens to remove Flock cameras over data sharing worries

After the public grilling of a Flock Safety sales representative, some Rolling Meadows City Council members said they are prepared to cancel automated license-plate reading camera contracts over concerns with external data sharing and auditing procedures.

The Northwest suburb has 10 cameras in place that capture the license plates of passing vehicles, in what police department brass has endorsed as a tool to find missing people and track suspects in criminal investigations.

But amid a growing national debate centered on privacy concerns and the potential for misuse — even anti-Flock signs have popped up around town in recent weeks — elected officials that voted to install the cameras in 2023 may soon be willing to remove them.

Alderwoman Jenifer Vinezeano demanded the Atlanta-based vendor produce a list of all Illinois municipalities who are using the company’s new self-audit tool, so then Rolling Meadows officials can decide who “we want to share data with and who we can uncheck if we so choose.”

At the end of a lengthy council discussion Tuesday night, Vinezeano gave the company a Jan. 1 deadline; otherwise she said she will make a motion to cancel the camera contracts.

Colleagues on the elected panel including Karen McHale and Stefanie Boucher echoed privacy concerns about how city residents could be surveilled by bad actor cops in other towns.

Currently, the city shares license plate information with other police departments in the state, having shut down access to out-of-state law enforcement agencies a year ago when a Texas sheriff’s office tapped into Mount Prospect’s cameras to search for a woman who had an abortion.

But Rolling Meadows council members noted more recent reports of police officers in nearby towns who have used the system to track people such as ex-girlfriends.

Dan Murdock, a Flock sales manager, said those stories have come to light since the company launched its audit assistance tool in April that allows police departments to see if their officers are running the same license plate over an extended period of time or more than 30 days apart, for example.

Rolling Meadows plans to run audits quarterly, and so far all potential red flags were found to have legitimate ties to law enforcement purposes, said Police Chief Anthony Peluso.

But that doesn’t solve for issues with external agencies, some council members argued.

“Say we had a bad apple … would you call village/town and notify them that one of our officers was excessively accessing their cameras and maybe stalking Sally Smith, that this could potentially be an issue?” Vinezeano asked Peluso, who responded “of course.”

“Could you confidently sit here and tell me that the municipalities would do the same to us?” she continued.

“I cannot answer for other municipalities,” the chief said.

“That’s the answer I expected. That is a huge concern,” Vinezeano said. “If another municipality has this red flag, we cannot rely on another municipality to guarantee that they’re going to notify our police department. I cannot bank on that. They may not do their job the right way.”

Murdock said in practice, notification was made in a recent case, but he admitted Flock’s new audit tool isn’t “perfect” and more changes will be made.

He said the company “did a horrific job” of telling the public what the cameras were all about when they were first rolled out.

“I understand why people don’t feel as safe as we would like them to feel,” Murdock said. “We’re going to continue to try and repair our public image and try and reset the narrative around (license plate readers) and Flock to hopefully make you feel safe.”

He called on state leaders to put standards in place. Indeed, legislation sponsored by Arlington Heights Democratic state Reps. Nicolle Grasse and Mary Beth Canty is pending in Springfield.

Rolling Meadows’ contracts for five cameras is up in July 2027, for three cameras in November 2027, and for two cameras in August 2028.

cplacek@dailyherald.com