Eight cameras which were recording license plates in Oak Park for the final three years are coming down.
On August 5 the Oak Park Village Board voted 5-2 to terminate the village’s contract with Flock Security, an Atlanta based mostly firm that manufactures the automated cameras that learn license plates. The cameras have been turned off Aug. 6.
Oak Park was midway via a two yr contract extension that paid Flock $30,000 a yr for the eight cameras, which have been largely positioned inside a pair blocks of the village’s boundary with Chicago. The cameras have been first put in in Oak Park in 2022 and in addition are utilized in different communities.
Opponents of the Flock cameras have stated the license plate data photographed by the cameras could be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and used to search out folks to deport, and that states that outlaw abortion can use data gathered by the cameras to prosecute ladies who may come to Illinois to get an abortion.
Many activists in Oak Park have persistently opposed the cameras and known as for his or her removing. Their pleas turned extra pressing this yr after Donald Trump turned president and ICE started aggressively ramping up deportations with little to no due technique of those that the administration claims will not be legally entitled to be in america.
“At a time when the federal authorities is making overreaching assaults on norms, establishments, civil rights and due course of and the rule of regulation, Oak Park shouldn’t be spending taxpayer funds on a expertise that may simply be abused to advance a common system of authoritarian model surveillance and management,” stated John Slocum, the manager director of Refugee Council USA, in a public remark earlier than the vote.
Voting to terminate the Flock contract have been village Trustees Jenna Leving Jacobson, Chibuike Enyia, Brian Straw, Derek Eder and a reluctant Village President Vicki Scaman. Village Board members Jim Taglia and Corey Wesley voted towards terminating the contract with Flock. As an alternative Taglia and Wesley supported a movement to show off the cameras for 90 days to offer the village extra time to review the problem. That movement was defeated by a vote of 4 to three as Scaman joined Taglia and Wesley in supporting the movement.
“Searches have been run on our knowledge associated to immigration enforcement,” Straw stated earlier than the vote.
Though state regulation and Oak Park ordinances prohibit sharing of license plate digital camera knowledge with federal immigration authorities and states making an attempt to implement abortion legal guidelines, Chicago Tribune reported in June that Texas regulation enforcement authorities carried out a nationwide search of 83,000 license plate reader cameras within the seek for a Texas girl who had a self-administered abortion. On its web site, Flock said that the Texas search was carried out as a result of the lady’s household feared that she had run away after the self-administered abortion and the search of the digital camera knowledge was completed solely in response to a request by the lady’s household to find her, and that no fees have been ever introduced towards the lady.
In January, in keeping with a memo despatched by Oak Park village supervisor Kevin Jackson, Palos Heights police performed 28 searches of license plate reader digital camera knowledge and listed the explanation for the search as “immigrations violation.” Jackson wrote that an inner evaluate by the Oak Park Police Division has not recognized any companies that particularly searched the Oak Park digital camera knowledge.
Earlier than the vote Straw disputed the notion that extra research was wanted.
“This has been a dialog and a course of that has been occurring for 5 years,” Straw stated. “This isn’t a brand new dialog; this isn’t a brand new factor.”
Taglia and Wesley implored the board to hearken to Oak Park police Chief Shatonya Johnson, who instructed the board final month the cameras have been a useful gizmo. A report ready by the Oak Park police Division final month cited 5 circumstances in 2024 when the cameras have been useful in investigations however solely two of these circumstances, certainly one of which concerned an armed theft and the opposite a stolen car, resulted in arrests.
Wesley stated whereas he had considerations in regards to the cameras he needed the police to have extra of a possibility to weigh in.
After the vote the police chief gave a terse response when requested by a reporter for her response to the vote to do away with the cameras.
“I assist the board’s choice and the police division will function accordingly,” Johnson stated as she and the remainder of the highest Oak Park Police brass left the assembly.
After the vote Taglia referred to the police division’s assist for the cameras.
“I’m certain they’re not completely satisfied,” Taglia stated. “I’m certain they wish to see a greater relationship with this board.”
Earlier than the vote Taglia identified that many neighboring suburbs have surveillance cameras just like the Flock cameras, mentioning Cicero, Berwyn, Maywood, River Forest and Forest Park. After the vote Eder stated after phrase will get out about Oak Park’s choice to do away with the cameras maybe these communities may observe go well with. However Scaman didn’t suppose that was possible.
“No neighborhood goes to look at this assembly and study something,” Scaman stated.
An emotional Scaman, who appeared at one level to wipe away a tear, decried the method that led to vote to do away with the cameras.
“This feels icky,” stated Scaman including that everybody’s thoughts was made up earlier than the assembly
Scaman stated the Village Board may have had a research session earlier than the vote and acquired extra enter from village employees.
“All of us type of failed in bringing ahead this dialogue in a extra productive means,” Scaman stated.
Some board members stated they frightened Flock may misuse the information, with Leving Jacobson calling the agency “untrustworthy.”
Straw agreed.
“I don’t belief Flock,” Straw stated. “I don’t are inclined to imagine that aggregating this type of knowledge in a company who can then flip round and at their discretion promote or give away that knowledge is an effective factor.”
Straw and Enyia stated the vote to do away with the cameras was not an indication of disrespect in the direction of the police division. Straw added that he thought the Oak Park Police Division was the most effective police division within the state.
Finally Scaman stated she concluded that the cameras weren’t proper for Oak Park.
“Possibly Flock will not be for us,” Scaman stated. “I’m conceding that at this level. I simply don’t like how we obtained right here, in any respect.”
However Eder was not disenchanted with the method or the end result.
“I’m not unhappy in regards to the dialog we’re having tonight, Eder stated. “I’m not unhappy in regards to the final result we’re having tonight as a result of that is what democracy seems like.”
Bob Skolnik is a contract reporter for Pioneer Press.
