The Will County Board voted Thursday to approve intergovernmental agreements with several municipalities to use county rights of way for Flock license plate reader cameras, over the objections of several residents and County Board members, who stated concerns about privacy and misuse.
Agreements were approved with Mokena, Crete, Manhattan, Frankfort, Naperville and Wilmington, while the board rejected a request from Beecher. All intergovernmental agreements approved were renewals of prior agreements.
The board approved the proposals by a 14-8 vote, with four Democrats and four Republicans casting no votes.
“They can follow you from the second you walk out your door,” said board member Steve Balich, a Homer Glen Republican, who voted against the proposal. “Our liberties are more important than these surveillance (cameras).”
Board member Katie Deane-Schlottman, a Joliet Republican, said residents don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in public. Cameras are on highways, private property and people’s doorbells, she said.
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Board member Frankie Pretzel, a New Lenox Republican, said the board shouldn’t take away an important tool of police departments. He said he ran on the platform of improving public safety, and Flock cameras can help police solve crimes or locate missing persons.
“It’s so sad that so many people don’t trust the police anymore,” Pretzel said. “I just don’t understand why we are questioning this.”
Before the votes, several police chiefs, including those from Mokena, Frankfort and Naperville, asked the board for their support.
Several people, however, cited privacy concerns and asked for a chance for residents to vote on the use of Flock cameras via a referendum.
The cameras pick up on a vehicle’s make, model and color and any identifying features, such as a roof rack or bumper stickers, said Dan Murdock, a company representative. They can be used to find missing and endangered persons and have reduced reports of retail theft, homicides and auto thefts, he said.
Flock cameras don’t recognize individual faces and can’t look for a specific person, Murdock said.
The cameras lately have come under fire for officers misusing them. Concerns have also been raised that they would be used to track women crossing state lines for an abortion or by the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportations.
“Our objective isn’t to create a surveillance system,” Will County Undersheriff Dan Jungles said. “Our objective is to give our deputies, investigators and officers another tool to help solve crimes, recover stolen vehicles, locate missing and endangered people and to make Will County a safer place to live.”
Jungles said any officer who misuses the technology should be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Will County resident Karissa Fleming said residents are concerned.
“I wish I could trust the police,” she said.
Resident Isabel Gloria said she’s spoken with neighbors, co-workers and friends and they are against mass surveillance.
Craig Herr said Flock cameras are popping up like dandelions.
“We don’t want to live in a surveillance state,” Herr said.
Kelly Smith said she was concerned that officers would stalk, intimidate, harass or instill fear in their partners, girlfriends or romantic interests.
“Who is paying the cost?” Smith said.
Frankfort police Chief Leanne Chelepis surveyed Will County communities who have solved crimes using Flock cameras.
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Crete used the cameras to solve an aggravated drunken driving hit-and-run accident, leaving the scene of an accident, stolen motor vehicles and child endangerment cases, Chelepis said.
Orland Park police solved an armored truck robbery, aggravated vehicular hijacking and burglary to motor vehicles, she said.
In her own department, Flock cameras were used to identify a road rage shooting, aggravated battery to an elderly woman, a fatal car crash and more, Chelepis said.
Chelepis said the benefits were too numerous to list, but the cameras have also solved crimes in places such as Monee, New Lenox, Mokena, Manhattan and Shorewood.
All Will County communities except for Lockport use the license plate reader cameras.
Will County Board member Mark Revis, a Plainfield Republican, said there are alternative ways officers can solve crimes that don’t erode the public’s liberty.
Board member Jackie Traynere, the chair of the Transportation Committee, said the County Board members will continue to look at safeguards for the Flock cameras and notify municipalities of any amendments to their existing agreements.
“If we are going to move forward with these cameras, I think we need guardrails, and I think we need a way to add guardrails if necessary,” Traynere, a Bolingbrook Democrat, said.
Not all board members were convinced this would benefit the county.
“What happens when those safeguards are not followed,” said Destinee Ortiz, a Romeoville Democrat.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter.