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License-plate readers · Lake County

Lake County

Using license-plate readers · 2 agencies documented

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Lake County Sheriff's Office

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
15
15 Flock cameras bought in 2024; only three were installed and running as of Jan. 2026.
Contract
Flock Safety: $90,000 two-year contract · from 2024 · approved by Lake County Board Law and Judicial Committee Feb. 2024 · Bought through Insight Public Sector SLED. First year from the Sheriff Asset Forfeiture Fund, later years from the General Fund. (Lake and McHenry County Scanner, March 28, 2024)
  1. Feb. 2024 A county board committee approved buying 15 Flock cameras for the Sheriff's Office for $90,000 under a two-year contract. (Lake and McHenry County Scanner, March 28, 2024)
  2. Jan. 2026 Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said only in-state local police can access the office's data, users must affirm it is not for reproductive-health or immigration purposes, and no data goes to out-of-state or federal agencies. (Pioneer Press / GovTech, Jan. 29, 2026)
  3. Aug. 2026 In August 2026 reporting, the Sheriff's Office credited its Flock cameras with helping make arrests in at least 10 cases, among them car thefts, robberies and a shooting. (Chicago Sun-Times / WBEZ, Aug. 27, 2026)
  4. Sept. 2026 By September 2026, the office had moved its internal reviews of camera use from yearly to monthly and shortened image storage from 30 days to 14; the reporting does not say when the changes took effect. (Chicago Tribune via Daily Herald, Sept. 13, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Committee approval was in late February 2024 per the news report; exact date not given.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Highland Park Police Department

Status
Program documented, current use unconfirmed
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
22
22 cameras approved in 2023; a photo caption mentions five locations.
Contract
Flock Safety: $57,500 year · from 2023 · approved by Highland Park City Council Feb. 13, 2023 · No-bid contract, plus a $7,500 one-time setup fee (about $65,000 in 2023). Vote 6-1, Councilmember Michelle Holleman opposed. Term not stated. (The Record North Shore, Feb. 19, 2023)
  1. Feb. 13, 2023 The City Council voted 6-1 to approve a no-bid Flock contract for 22 plate-reader cameras. (The Record North Shore, Feb. 19, 2023)
Conflicts and open questions
  • No record after 2023 was found.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Statewide

  1. Jan. 1, 2020 The Tamara Clayton Expressway Camera Act took effect, creating the Illinois State Police plate-reader program on Cook County expressways. It is named for a woman shot on I-57 near Cicero Avenue on Feb. 4, 2019. (Illinois State Police, Division of Criminal Investigation, 2026)
  2. June 6, 2022 Gov. JB Pritzker signed an extension of the expressway camera program; the state police page lists $20 million from the IDOT Road Fund tied to that extension. (Illinois State Police, Division of Criminal Investigation, 2026)
  3. Aug. 11, 2023 Gov. Pritzker approved HB 3326 (Public Act 103-0540), effective Jan. 1, 2024. It bars plate-reader users from sharing data with any jurisdiction to investigate or enforce laws restricting reproductive or other lawful health care or allowing detention based on immigration status, requires out-of-state police to sign a written declaration before getting Illinois plate data, and treats the data as confidential. Capitol News Illinois reported the law sets no specific penalties. (Illinois General Assembly, Aug. 11, 2023; Capitol News Illinois, Aug. 27, 2025)
  4. March 2025 U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold dismissed Scholl v. Illinois State Police, a suit by two Cook County residents filed in late May 2024 against the state police, the governor and the attorney general, finding the expressway plate readers do not trigger Fourth Amendment scrutiny. (Date: the Monday before an April 4, 2025 report.) (WBEZ / Chicago Sun-Times, June 3, 2024; Chicago Sun-Times (via NPR Illinois), April 4, 2025)
  5. June 11, 2025 The Secretary of State's office met with Mount Prospect police and audited the village's Flock data, finding a May 9, 2025 nationwide search by a Johnson County, Texas, sheriff's office and 262 searches citing immigration between mid-January and April 2025. (Village of Mount Prospect, date not shown; Associated Press (via 6abc), June 13, 2025)
  6. June 12, 2025 Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias asked the attorney general to review the Mount Prospect case and announced an audit system for compliance with the 2023 law. At his request Flock blocked 62 out-of-state agencies and began flagging 'abortion' and 'immigration' in search requests. (Associated Press (via 6abc), June 13, 2025)
  7. June 30, 2025 HB 3339 was signed, adding Lee, Ogle and Whiteside to the 20 counties already authorized for state police expressway cameras, allowing use in human-trafficking and involuntary-servitude investigations, and exempting camera images from FOIA. It took effect immediately. (Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus, June 30, 2025; Illinois State Police, Division of Criminal Investigation, 2026)
  8. Aug. 25, 2025 Giannoulias said an audit of a sample of 12 law enforcement agencies found Flock lacked proper data-sharing safeguards and had run a pilot giving U.S. Customs and Border Protection access to Illinois camera data. He ordered Flock to cut off that access; Flock paused its federal pilot programs nationwide. (NBC Chicago, Aug. 25, 2025; Capitol News Illinois, Aug. 27, 2025)
  9. Aug. 27, 2025 Capitol News Illinois counted about 90 Illinois police departments confirmed as Flock users; disclosures from 14 of them listed more than 461 Illinois agencies and 551 out-of-state agencies with access to their data. (Capitol News Illinois, Aug. 27, 2025)
  10. Sept. 5, 2025 Giannoulias reported that an audit found Forest Park police plate data from Motorola Solutions readers had been shared with federal immigration authorities, and directed Motorola to turn off sharing with federal agencies. (Forest Park Review, Sept. 5, 2025)
  11. Feb. 10, 2026 Rep. Kelly Cassidy introduced HB 5151, the Automated License Plate Recognition System Act, later sponsored by Rep. Nicolle Grasse. It would require police to delete plate data not tied to an investigation, court order or case within three days and would bar using the data to track people at protests, people seeking lawful health care, or for immigration enforcement. (Shaw Local, May 29, 2026)
  12. Sept. 29, 2026 A Seventh Circuit panel (Chief Judge Michael Brennan, Judges Rebecca Taibleson and Amy St. Eve) heard the appeal in the Scholl case. (Courthouse News Service, Sept. 29, 2026)

State agencies

Illinois State Police

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Motorola Solutions, Flock Safety
Cameras
808
808 installed statewide per the ISP transparency page (2026); Courthouse News reported 807, including 402 in Cook County (Sept. 2026). The state police pay Flock for access to its network but run no Flock cameras.
Contract
Motorola Solutions: · from June 28, 2024 · to Dec. 15, 2027 · approved by Illinois State Police June 28, 2024 · Motorola Solutions is the primary vendor (Vehicle Manager system); contract value not stated on the page. (Illinois State Police, Division of Criminal Investigation, 2026)
Contract
Flock Safety: about $50,000 year · Access to Flock data only; ISP operates no Flock cameras and shares no data with Flock, per Capitol News Illinois. (Capitol News Illinois, Aug. 27, 2025)
  1. Dec. 14, 2022 ISP and IDOT signed an intergovernmental agreement providing $22.5 million from the IDOT Road Fund; about 300 cameras were on Cook County expressways by December 2022. (Illinois State Police, Division of Criminal Investigation, 2026)
  2. June 30, 2025 FY2025 annual report: 160 cameras installed during the year (largest share, 54, in Peoria County); 2,759,896,140 detections, 75,760,878 hits and 469,787 inquiries. (Illinois State Police, 2025)
  3. July 2025 At least one site installed in each of the 21 counties named in law, per the ISP transparency page. (Illinois State Police, Division of Criminal Investigation, 2026)
  4. Feb. 2026 About $10.6 million appropriated for new installations in Bureau, Champaign, Grundy, Henry, Kendall, LaSalle, Madison, Rock Island and Winnebago counties. (Illinois State Police, Division of Criminal Investigation, 2026)
  5. June 30, 2026 FY2026 annual report: 190 cameras installed during the year (48 in Cook County), 3.38 billion detections, 94.8 million hits and 958,482 investigative searches; Cook County installation cost $1,710,529.00 and annual maintenance $531,552.31. (Illinois State Police, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Data kept up to 90 days, then deleted automatically (ISP transparency page).
  • ISP says sharing with federal agencies such as the FBI and HSI was previously in place and has been removed.
  • FY2026 report end date assumed as end of state fiscal year (June 30, 2026); the document states no period dates.
  • Flock is listed as a vendor only because ISP buys access to Flock's network (about $50,000 a year); ISP runs no Flock cameras (Capitol News Illinois).

From agency records.

Illinois State Toll Highway Authority

Status
Program documented, current use unconfirmed
Vendors
Vendor not named in source
Cameras
22
12 in Cook County and 10 in Winnebago County under the expressway camera program; no new installations reported in 2025-2026.
  1. 2022 The Tollway, working with ISP but outside the IDOT grant, installed 12 plate-reader cameras in Cook County and 10 in Winnebago County. ISP reports show no Tollway additions since December 2022. (Date inferred; the sources give no install date.) (Illinois State Police, Division of Criminal Investigation, 2026; Illinois State Police, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Listed on the ISP transparency page and in the FY2026 report (0 new installations). Whether the cameras remain in service is not stated.

From agency records.