Arlington Heights trustees want penalties in new license-plate camera contracts

Arlington Heights village trustees are willing to extend contracts with Flock Safety for automated license-plate reader cameras, but want a penalty inserted in case the company breaks the rules.

“I know that this is a powerful tool that we want to have for our town, but in our contract we should have a pretty significant penalty if the data is breached so that Flock is really standing behind their commitment that the data’s not going to go into the wrong hands,” said Trustee Wendy Dunnington.

Village board members delayed a vote in December to extend the police department’s existing agreements with the Atlanta-based company to get more questions answered, but took up the issue again Monday night.

The cameras have been at the center of controversy throughout the suburbs since an Illinois Secretary of State audit found last summer that out-of-state law enforcement agencies tapped Flock’s database to conduct searches related to abortion and immigration, in violation of the Illinois Trust Act.

The city of Denver negotiated a $100,000-per-violation penalty for unauthorized data sharing into its latest contract with Flock — something Dunnington and fellow trustees Carina Santa Maria, Robin LaBedz, Bill Manganaro and Greg Zyck said should be in Arlington Heights’ agreements.

Police Chief Nick Pecora said Flock previously expressed openness to including a penalty amount in contract language. He promised conversations would take place between attorneys for the village and Flock.

Arlington Heights installed the first set of cameras in 2017, and now has more than two dozen in place throughout the village. The technology captures images of license plates of moving vehicles and compares them to so-called hot lists for vehicles stolen or wanted in connection with a crime, and databases for missing persons.

Deputy Police Chief Greg Czernecki called the cameras a “force multiplier” for the police department, helping officers develop quick suspect leads, solve crimes, and provide objective evidence for use in prosecution.

“The license plate readers are used for legitimate law enforcement purposes,” Czernecki said.

In the last month, officers conducted about 1,200 searches and received nearly 31,000 hits from hot lists including stolen license plates and vehicles, registered sex offenders, suspected gang members and missing persons, he added.

When concerns over out-of-state data sharing arose last June, Arlington Heights revoked access to any agency outside of Illinois — a prohibition that remains in place today, Czernecki said.

Data sharing continues for Illinois agencies that have made a written request, which is vetted and approved by Czernecki and Pecora.

All searches conducted by Arlington Heights officers are logged so there is a paper trail, Czernecki said. Certain search terms — including those related to immigration and reproductive care — are now flagged and the search is automatically denied, he said.

At Dunnington’s request, police officials agreed to conduct a monthly audit of internal and external searches, and add a public transparency portal to the village’s website that lists camera locations and the number of vehicles tracked, among other information.