On June 11, 2025, at 4:30 P.M., the Mount Prospect Police Department (MPPD) was made aware of an investigation by the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office into the misuse of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) data through Flock Safety that violated Illinois state law. Data from Mount Prospect, along with other Illinois law enforcement agencies, was accessed through the Flock Safety “National Lookup” feature by other law enforcement agencies for purposes of immigration enforcement. The use of ALPR data collected by Mount Prospect Flock Safety cameras for this purpose does not align with the Mount Prospect Police Department’s values and is a clear violation of Illinois state law. 

The Illinois Secretary of State’s Office investigation revealed that other law enforcement agencies conducted 262 immigration-related searches on Mount Prospect’s ALPR data. It is likely other Illinois communities with Flock cameras would show similar searches of their local cameras if audited. MPPD was unaware of these searches until being notified by the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office at the end of the day on June 11.

The Mount Prospect Police Department learned at the end of May that the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department in Texas utilized the Flock Safety “National Lookup” feature, accessing the data from over 83,000 cameras around the country, including Mount Prospect’s. Mount Prospect Police did not have a data sharing agreement with this agency and reached out to Flock Safety to inquire about the search. Flock Safety explained that by opting into the “National Lookup” feature, which Mount Prospect did, it permitted other law enforcement agencies who also utilized this feature to search Mount Prospect ALPR data without a data sharing agreement. MPPD was not made aware of this capability prior to the investigation. Flock has stated a need to increase communications with participating communities around this two-way sharing feature.

“I am tremendously upset that some law enforcement agencies who agreed to follow Illinois law, in order to gain access to our ALPR data, conducted illegal searches violating the trust of our community”, said Chief of Police Michael Eterno  “As disappointed as I am with these other agencies, I want to emphasize that no member of the  Mount Prospect Police Department shared ALPR data in violation of the law. I realize that this misuse of Mount Prospect’s ALPR data violates the trust of our community, and we as a department will continue to work to enhance the Flock ALPR software and ensure this abuse does not occur in the future,” said Chief Eterno.

After having learned the information from the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office, the Mount Prospect Police Department took immediate steps to mitigate and prevent this from occurring again. MPPD has taken the following preventative measures:
- MPPD opted out of the Flock Safety “National Lookup” feature
- MPPD cancelled any data sharing agreement with law enforcement agencies who violated Illinois state law. 
- MPPD revoked access to Mount Prospect’s ALPR data for all law enforcement agencies outside of Illinois.
- MPPD will be updating its ALPR policy to include regular audits of the searches being conducted by internal and external users. 

The Village of Mount Prospect received a statement from Flock Safety regarding this investigation, which can be found here: https://www.flocksafety.com/articles/flock-safetys-response-to-illinois-lpr-data-use-and-out-of-state-sharing-concerns