Although about half the city’s license-plate cameras are broken, the Park Ridge City Council voted to approve another one-year contract with Flock Safety Solutions, the controversial company that manages the camera-reading network.
At a July 6 Committee of the Whole Meeting, city leaders heard from Police Chief Bob Kampwirth, who said the cameras provide a valuable tool to respond to crime and have been key in making some important arrests. The city’s been using the license plate reading system for about a year.
The $24,000 contract includes data management and some minimal camera upkeep, though the city owns the cameras. The system allows government agencies to share license-plate data across jurisdictions throughout the state, and while the company claims it does not give data to federal authorities, it has been criticized for doing so.
Last year, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office reported that Flock was sharing its Illinois data with federal immigration authorities, which violates state law. The company said it would stop.
In addition, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has specifically tried to block Flock from sharing motorist data with outside agencies seeking to penalize people seeking abortions in Illinois.
In recent months, vandals have targeted the cameras — which are fixed in place and easy to spot with distinctive profiles and solar panels — and destroyed or damaged the cameras. In June, Kampwirth reported that four of the city’s eight cameras were out of commission due to vandalism, though he reported on July 6 that one suspect had been arrested in Niles.
The cameras could cost up to $5,000 each to be fixed, in the case of major damage. He told the council his officers are paying attention to the cameras, making sure they don’t get damaged.
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“We are out there watching for that,” he said. “There was an arrest in Niles, and we were able to charge the person with damaging our three or four cameras.”
Besides the damage and the potential violation of state law, Kampwirth said the cameras have been helpful to law enforcement. He noted they’ve helped locate several stolen cars and, recently, the suspect in a Glenview shooting was arrested minutes after the shooting happened due to a camera alert.
Kampwirth argued that this is the value of the system, given the proximity of the suburban communities. Many of the so-called collar communities use the Flock system, so any law enforcement agency can alert the whole camera network for a suspected license plate.
“If that vehicle pops up anywhere in the system, it will alert Park Ridge and every camera in the system,” he told the council.
The council approved the one-year contract by a vote of 6-1, with Alderperson Fred Sanchez voting against the measure.