Elgin police chief assures public: No Flock cameras, no misuse found in license plate reader audit
Against a backdrop of growing public distrust of Flock Safety cameras, Elgin’s police chief explained this week that the city doesn’t do business with the controversial company.
Meanwhile, an internal audit of the city’s license plate readers found no instances of misuse.
Police Chief Ana Lalley told the city council Wednesday that her department utilizes 27 cameras in nine locations throughout the city. The automated license plate recognition (LPR) system is comprised of Genetec and Axon cameras, which other agencies cannot access.
“The Elgin Police Department does not use Flock for license plate readers and does not currently have any signed agreements with Flock,” Lalley said. “This was a decision that was made several years ago, as the model did not fit with the philosophy of the department.”
Multiple residents have spoken out against the cameras during the public comment portion of the past few city council meetings. Neighboring communities have faced backlash following widespread reports of data misuse and privacy violations.
“The department's philosophy is to embrace technology, and it is understood that there are unintended consequences to its use,” Lalley said.
Officials support having a “transparent and open conversation” with residents about the use of license plate readers, she added.
Lalley said residents can see the locations of Elgin’s license plate readers on the police department’s transparency page.
Police officials also increased the number of audits they’ll perform from quarterly to monthly and upped random audits from three to 10 annually.
Lalley said the department has “complete control” of data collected from the cameras, which is retained for 30 days unless a supervisor authorizes additional time related to an ongoing investigation.
Elgin had a signed agreement with Flock from 2023 to 2025 to access its database for LPR searches for criminal investigations, but discontinued use of the search last year “due to the climate surrounding Flock,” Lalley said.
In addition to the 27 LPRs, Elgin’s citywide system has 786 cameras. The department also utilizes 85 license plate readers in police vehicles and another in a parking control vehicle.
Lalley said all license plates entered into the system must be related to a specific case report or incident number.
The chief said the department’s Systems Technology Unit recently conducted an in-depth audit of the LPR systems, both fixed and in vehicles, reviewing over 14,000 LPR log records going back to 2023 to identify potentially inappropriate search activity.
“This intensive review identified no malicious or unauthorized activity and no confirmed officer misconduct,” she said.
They did, however, find a loophole that needed closing.
Department protocol says officers need to use Genetec’s app when conducting a search so it is properly tracked. However, Elgin police didn’t find out until recently that Genetec doesn’t save information about searches done with its web client.
“Our incorrect assumption that Genetec would be able to pull data from the background, even though it does not appear in reports, was a miscalculation which I own and have taken steps to remedy,” Lalley said.
As a result, the web client has been disabled until there’s an update that allows individual searches to be logged properly and audited.
Despite the controversy surrounding the technology, Lalley said LPRs have become “a vital investigative tool,” greatly reducing the time-consuming task of reviewing hours of video from multiple sources “to produce a force multiplier” for solving crime.
“The use of LPRs has helped to solve significant crimes within Elgin,” she said. “What is important to remember is that without the use of this LPR information, these cases may not have been solved.”
rwest@dailyherald.com