The Supreme Court overturned the Roe decision just months after Oak Park decided to install Flock surveillance cameras. In the two years since those events, Oak Park has given law enforcement agencies in 14 states access to its Flock cameras. Abortion access is illegal in six of those states (Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas) and restrictive bans exist in many of the others. Allowing police departments, located in states hostile to abortion, to access Oak Park’s Flock data, runs directly against the purpose and spirit of the abortion sanctuary ordinance passed by the Village Board on July 12, 2022. These sharing practices also likely violate state statue.

Oak Park likely shares its ALPR data in violation of Illinois state law

An Illinois state law (ILCS 5/2-13) governing how ALPR users share the information collected by their cameras went into effect at the start of 2024. One provision of the statue states that:

Any ALPR user in this State, including any law enforcement agency of this State that uses ALPR systems, shall not share ALPR information with an out-of-state law enforcement agency without first obtaining a written declaration from the out-of-state law enforcement agency that it expressly affirms that ALPR information obtained shall not be used in a manner that violates subsection (b). If a written declaration of affirmation is not executed, the law enforcement agency shall not share the ALPR information with the out-of-state law enforcement agency.

In response to a public records request seeking to obtain these written declarations, the Oak Park Police Department stated that they had no matching records. Even if Oak Park was sharing its collected ALPR information in alignment with state law, surveilling everyone’s driving patterns doesn’t make us safer. Instead, it makes us less safe by infringing on our right to move freely, while fueling the numbers-based policing that preys upon Black, brown, and poor people. On top of that, these cameras make a ton of mistakes—mistakes that lead to frightening police encounters and wrongful arrests. These cameras are not making Oak Park safer.

Let’s begin reimagine community safety by canceling Flock and reallocating those resources to violence interruption programs, a non-police mental health response team, or a free bike program for youth. By aligning our resources with our values, we can build a village where everyone has what they need to thrive.

Additional reading and data sources

• Read more about ALPRs in Oak Park in our zine.

• Public record that includes organizations with access to Oak Park’s Flock devices as of June 21, 2023.

• For more information on ALPRs, please check out the websites for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),  Lucy Parsons, and Fight For the Future.