By rssfeeds-admin 
DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) — Automatic license plate readers (ALPR) can be found in communities all across the United States — including Central Illinois. The systems are meant to be used to fight against crime, but data shows that multiple law enforcement agencies throughout the country may have conducted searches that are not allowed under state law in Illinois.
On Thursday, June 12, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced that he will be cracking down on how law enforcement agencies share their license plate data. This comes after Giannoulias accused a police department in the suburbs of Chicago of giving license plate reader data to law enforcement in Texas, which violated a 2023 law barring outside agencies from using ALPR data for immigration or abortion related cases.
But that suburb is not the only place that agencies outside of Illinois appear to have accessed ALPR data.
WCIA obtained Danville Police Department Flock data through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Flock is the largest operator of ALPR cameras in the nation, according to Giannoulias. According to the Danville Police Department’s Flock audit, agencies around the country have accessed their data. And, to access Flock data, agencies must first cite a reason.
Several law enforcement agencies around the country cited various “immigration” reasons to account for their search.
This included:
- Houston, Texas Police Department
- Dallas, Texas Police Department
- Missouri State Highway Patrol
- Mesa, Arizona Police Department
- Midland, Texas Police Department
- Horry County South Carolina Police Department
- Louisville Metro Kentucky Police Department
- North County Cooperative Missouri Police Department
- Florida Highway Patrol
- Fort Wayne, Indiana Police Department
- Texas Department of Public Safety
- Warren, Ohio Police Department
- Montgomery County Texas Sheriff’s Office
- Spencer County, Indiana Sheriff’s Office
- Bay County, Florida Sheriff’s Office
- Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center (MOCIC)
The Danville Police Department provided a statement to WCIA in addition to the FOIA request. It reads:
The Danville Police Department has affirmed that our officers will not use LPR data to investigate or enforce a law that interferes with a person obtaining reproductive health services or other health services or that relates to a person’s immigration status. All agencies, regardless of their respective State laws, that have reciprocal agreements with our agency must affirm through Flock that they will abide by the same. Agencies that refuse or fail to make this affirmation will not be allowed to enter into the agreement to share networks. Agencies outside of the State of Illinois can make national searches of all networks if they have a complete license plate number. These searches include not only networks where they have agreements, but also networks where they don’t. In these cases, the searching agency must affirm that they will comply with Illinois law regarding reproductive health services as well as immigration status prior to accessing Illinois data through the national search tool.
According to Flock, any agency that affirmed compliance with Illinois law, but then performed a search for a prohibited purpose will have their access to Illinois data revoked.
Danville Police Department
Now, Giannoulias said he’s asked Flock to shut off access to 46 different agencies who may have violated Illinois laws.
“But these cameras must be regulated so they can’t be used for surveillance, tracking the data of innocent people, or criminalizing lawful behavior,” Giannoulias said during a news conference on Thursday.
He said his office will be conducting audits to learn if other agencies accessed ALPR data, and figuring out ways to keep Illinois resident’s personal information safe.
Flock affirmed that they revoked access to Illinois data for multiple agencies who conducted searches with “impermissible” reasons under Illinois law. And, Flock added that they have created a tool that blocks impermissible searches from accessing Illinois data as the searches are happening. Later this year, Flock is also planning to launch AI-powered auditing alerts.
“We take these concerns seriously and have already taken decisive steps to address them,” Flock said in a statement. You can find their full statement, as well as the steps they have taken here.
WCIA has reached out to all of the agencies from the Danville Police FOIA that listed “immigration” as reasons for accessing Danville’s data.
The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) provided a statement to WCIA. They said the searches were related to local felony investigations. The involved suspects had been moving in and out of the country, which is why the word “immigration” was used.
“At no point were any searches conducted for the singular purpose of locating individuals for any type of immigration enforcement. Furthermore, no searches have ever been made at the request of any federal law-enforcement agency,” the LMPD added.
As of Monday, June 16, LMPD said Illinois has restored their access to their Flock cameras.
WCIA has also been in communication with the Midland Texas Police Department, the Mesa Police Department and the Horry County Police Department to find out more information about why these searches were made.
The Spencer County Sheriff’s Department and the Dallas Police Department both declined to comment on the matter.
WCIA is still waiting to hear back from the other listed agencies.
Other than Danville, automated license plate readers can also be found in Mahomet, Champaign, Paxton, Taylorville, Monticello.
Discover more from RSS Feeds Cloud
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.