The Arlington Heights Village Board voted unanimously Monday, March 2, 2026 to extend contracts with Flock Safety for automated license-plate reader cameras (ALPR or LPR), but the approval occurred after the Flock Safety connection with the village was out of contract while village authorities worked to create a new contract to prevent unauthorized data access and unauthorized use of images captured by the Flock cameras in Arlington Heights. Penalties have been added to the contract, and the Village of Arlington Heights and Flock Safety have agreed on the terms that include penalties for unauthorized sharing of data and images captured by 35 Flock cameras located in Arlington Heights.
The Village of Arlington Heights has approved an 11-camera agreement and a 24-camera agreement totaling 35 cameras.
In the event Flock Safety causes an unauthorized sharing, Flock shall pay to the customer (the Village of Arlington Heights), as a penalty, the sum of: $22,000 for a penalty involving the 11-camera agreement and $48,000 for a penalty in involving the 24-camera agreement. Since the cameras are intermixed throughout the Village of Arlington Heights, there could be a violation involving just the 11-camera agreement ($22,000 penalty), or involving just the 24-camera agreement ($48,000 penalty), or both agreements ($70,000 penalty). Retroactive to May 2025 and June 2025, the renewed agreements could include penalties ranging from $22,000 to $48,000 to $70,000 per incident of unauthorized access or disclosure.
A violation is defined as a single, discrete act or incident of unauthorized disclosure or access, resulting from Flock’s conduct, irrespective of the volume of records, cameras, or data elements involved in that same act or incident. The penalties do not apply to disclosures “pursuant to a lawful subpoena, emergency, or judicial compulsion, or as a result of circumvention of Flock’s controls,” per the contract amendments.
The contracts declare that access to video and data by federal personnel isn’t considered unauthorized sharing as long as Arlington Heights police initiated the download of data and video, and that officials are acting under a state or local agency with access approved by Arlington Heights.
Arlington Heights is the first and only municipality in Illinois that has this type of penalty agreement. Penalty agreements are included in some other Flock agreements nationwide (e.g., Denver), but are not common.
Reasoning for the Penalty Agreements
General privacy and upholding the residents’ trust of the Arlington Heights Police Department was a major concern, and there was concern that a misstep involving privacy or a violation of the Illinois Trust Act could hurt the reputation of the police department. “The Arlington Heights Police Department over many, many years has developed a lot of trust in the community,” said Trustee Wendy Dunnington, who made the original request for contract penalties. “It’s just really important that by us working with Flock Safety that we don’t ruin that trust.” If there is violation, according to the contracts, Flock Safety would be responsible for a penalty payment to the Village of Arlington Heights (the Flock customer).
Flock shall not disclose, enable access to, or otherwise make available any footage (and any data generated therefrom) of customer data to any unauthorized person or entity, except:
(a) Required by applicable law, regulation, subpoena, warrant or court order and only in accordance with the Customer Data Policy
(b) In response to exigent or emergency request consistent with Flock’s, evidence policy and applicable law
(c) with Customer’s prior written consent
The two contracts of Arlington Heights and Flock Safety were allowed to expire Summer 2025 after a controversy was exposed when an Illinois Secretary of State audit found out-of-state law enforcement agencies tapped Flock’s database for their own investigation that was argued as a violation of the Illinois Trust Act. The August 2025 audit by the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office found that Flock Safety violated state law by allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to access Illinois license plate camera data. The investigation revealed that federal agents, as well as out-of-state police, used Flock’s “National Lookup” feature to track vehicles, including searches related to immigration.
Following the audit Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias immediately ordered Flock Safety to shut off access to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Also, a Texas case involving disclosure of a missing person’s abortion care also allegedly breached Illinois privacy laws.
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias called on local police departments to re-examine their agreements with Flock and what access they grant law enforcement to their ALPR cameras to ensure they do not violate the state’s Trust Act, which restricts local law enforcement in Illinois with collaborating with federal authorities – including ICE – on immigration enforcement without a court warrant.
The first set of Flock Safety cameras in Arlington Heights were installed on fixed poles, in parkways for example, and inside squad cars in 2017. LPR technology is available in patrol vehicles via Flock Safety Flex LPR cameras. Flock Safety cameras capture images of license plates of moving vehicles and compare the images to hot lists for vehicles stolen or wanted in connection with a crime; and compare images to databases for missing persons.
A citizen in public forum asked questions about any successful results connected to crimes at Ulta and crimes involving catalytic converter thefts. Deputy Police Chief Greg Czernecki replied, describing the the camera system as a “force multiplier” for law enforcement, helping officers develop quick suspect leads, solve crimes, and provide objective evidence for use in prosecution.
The new camera contracts, which run through the summer of 2027, cost $110,843. The slide presentation had an mathematical addition error showing the total $100,843.
Flock Safety is a private company founded in 2017 with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to License Plate Reader Cameras, Flock Safety also manufactures Flock Audio Detection which detects gunshots, street takeovers, crashes, and fireworks (differentiates from gunshots). According to Flock Safety, the audio system is continually trained to recognize new sounds.
Flock911 can also stream live audio 9-1-1 calls to police vehicles.
Flock Audio Detection and Flock911 is not known to be in use in Arlington Heights.
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