On August 4, 2026, we came to City Council in force to complain about Flock (see video). I am always grateful to see so many people I do not know united in advocating for our community’s privacy.
It worked. The City of Champaign is in damage control over Flock. On their website, Police Use of Technology, they state,
At the City Council Meeting on August 4, 2026, City Council and staff were presented with information…, raising concerns related to ALPR search activity conducted by four other law enforcement agencies — the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Chesterfield County, Virginia Police Department, the Matteson Police Department, and the Palos Heights Police Department — with shared access to the City’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) system.
Nevermind that sharing with out-of-state agencies is a violation of policy, according to the News-Gazette.
The Palos Heights Police Department account was used to conduct 28 searches across more than 5,900… The reason for the searches was entered as “Immigration Violation,” which lacked clarity…
It is clear, just clearly identifying something the City does not want to admit; the search was related to immigration enforcement.
(continuing)… and raised concerns regarding compliance with the Illinois TRUST Act… Because CPD lacked sufficient information to determine whether the searches were permissible under Illinois law and CPD policy, CPD personnel referred the matter to ILETSB to investigate the possible violation of the Illinois TRUST Act. [nothing further on this issue]
They put all of the blame on Palos Heights, and none on themselves. However, CPD is also responsible for allowing immigration-related searches on their data. It is curious the City’s website never mentions anything about 625 ILCS 5/2-130(b), even in “Investigations of Potential Legal Violations.” Perhaps the City did not know about it. That law states:
An ALPR user shall not sell, share, allow access to, or transfer ALPR information to any state or local jurisdiction for the purpose of investigating or enforcing a law that:… permits the detention or investigation of a person based on the person’s immigration status.
That is exactly what Champaign did. I can mad-lib it: Champaign allowed Palos Heights to access ALPR information for the (stated) purpose of investigating an alleged violation of an immigration statute. If it was wrong of Palos Heights to run the search, then it was wrong of Champaign to allow that search to be run on our data.
The problem is that no human from Champaign is filtering the external searches for prohibited uses. According to the City’s website:
When another law enforcement agency wants access to CPD’s ALPR data through the Flock system, they must request access first… Once access is granted, individual searches by authorized users do not need extra supervisor approval.
Palos Heights requested and received access years ago, and ever since then, all of their Flock users can do searches on our data without approval from any human from Champaign. There were 120,000 monthly searches conducted from external agencies like Palos Heights, according to the City’s FOIA website.
(continuing from the City’s website)… Those users must still follow the law and CPD policies.
But who checks that they are following CPD policies?
Monthly checks have been done on searches made by CPD staff since the program started.
Ok, what about searches made by external departments, like Palos Heights?
The website assures everyone that the issue has been addressed by cutting off sharing with Palos Heights. The problem is not Palos Heights; it is the lack of oversight given to Flock. The police only knew about the immigration-related searches because I told them. From the City’s website,
After being informed of potential issues during the August 4, 2026, City Council Meeting, CPD promptly reviewed the search activity identified by the community member [from Jan 2025] and determined that the activity associated with the City of Palos Heights warranted further investigation.
By not knowing about this incident until I told them, the police have proven they do not have proper oversight in place, despite telling City Council and the public that they had “very robust, very secure” oversight in place.
When I brought this up to City Council on September 1 (video), I got the impression that some City Council members are not aware of the City’s admission of this incident on their website. The information was edited in to an existing page on the City’s website, so perhaps it went unnoticed. I only saw it because I was watching that page already.
But it needs to be noticed. Champaign allowed immigration enforcement-related queries on their Flock data. The incident is no longer according to me; it is now according to the admission on the City’s website. Everyone with decision-making power in the City needs to be made aware.
—Samuel Grayson, Stop Flock CU
Here is a screengrab of the City’s website, in case they delete it.
