Elgin Community College in suburban Chicago installed six Flock Safety automated license plate readers in April 2025, intending to enhance campus security by tracking vehicles and aiding in theft and missing-person investigations.
By September 2025, college President Peggy Heinrich and her administration grew concerned about the cameras' role in immigration enforcement. Public records showed that data from Flock systems at other Illinois public universities had been accessed dozens of times by federal immigration authorities in connection with enforcement matters. An ICE agent had also detained an Elgin Community College student in a campus parking lot. With more than half of the college's student body identifying as Latino, Heinrich said enrollment dipped as students feared using the campus. "We're just doing everything we can here to be sure this feels like a safe place for our students to come," Heinrich said.
In October 2025, college officials formally asked Flock to remove the cameras. The company rejected the request within a day, saying it had not breached the contract. In December 2025, the college made a second attempt, offering to pay for the remaining five months of service if Flock would uninstall the equipment. Flock did not respond. "We never received a response back from Flock," Heinrich told Open Campus.
Unable to obtain the removal through formal channels, Elgin Community College staff took matters into their own hands. They began covering the cameras with black trash bags and zip ties to prevent them from capturing footage. But the standoff did not end there. Workers in unmarked vehicles—which Heinrich believed belonged to Flock—repeatedly arrived to remove the coverings. "We were kind of in a back and forth for a bit where we'd cover, and then when they'd service, they'd remove," Heinrich said. "Then we'd cover and then they'd remove." This cycle continued for months.
The dispute reflects a structural power imbalance built into Flock's business model. Flock Safety retains ownership of all cameras it deploys, and contracts grant the company control over removal. Surveillance researcher Torin Monahan noted that the company is financially incentivized to maintain as many cameras in operation as possible, because potential clients are interested in surveillance networks with the greatest geographic reach. "You get to access even more cameras throughout the country," Monahan said.
The standoff ended only when Elgin Community College's contract expired in April 2026. Flock technicians then arrived and removed the cameras for good. An internal audit conducted by the college found no evidence that federal immigration agents had accessed Elgin's camera data, but Heinrich said the removal decision was made "out of an abundance of caution for our students."
The Elgin dispute is not isolated. Public records reviewed by WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times show that Flock camera data at Joliet Junior College, University of Illinois Chicago, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was searched dozens of times in connection with immigration enforcement last year. An Illinois Secretary of State audit found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection made queries that violated the state's Trust Act, which bars local cooperation with civil immigration enforcement. Five of Illinois' 12 public universities continue using Flock technology, having spent more than $450,000 on it since 2021. However, pushback is growing nationally. Emory University dropped its Flock contract in September 2026 following protests, Stanford switched to a different vendor in August 2026, and UW-Madison ended its program in July 2026. Petitions against Flock installations have emerged at Rice University, Samford University, and other campuses. Flock Safety did not respond to requests for comment from The Neutral Press or other outlets.
