Schaumburg police share license plate data with 400+ Illinois agencies
A researcher's public records request reveals the scope of automated license plate reader data sharing in one Chicago suburb.
What to know
- Schaumburg police share automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with over 400 Illinois agencies—including municipal police, sheriffs, universities, railroads, and state offices—creating a seamless surveillance network across the state.
- The discovery by open-records researcher Jason Hunyar reveals the scale at which license plate tracking data is distributed without individual warrants or public awareness.
- Critics argue the system enables mapping of citizens' everyday movements and enables potential misuse; some commenters note ALPR cameras also record vehicle make, model, color, bumper stickers, and damage.
- The finding intensifies ongoing national debate over commercial ALPR platforms like Flock and Vigilant/Motorola, with users calling for stronger oversight and pointing to broader surveillance infrastructure concerns.
The dispute Whether ALPR technology itself is legitimate (with oversight) or constitutes inherent mass surveillance that should be dismantled. · positions read across 91 posts and comments
This is systemic mass surveillance overreach that constitutes a police state and must be stopped immediately.
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“Yup, we're now a police state. No more privacy, no more freedoms, no more!”
growseedsman.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
ALPR technology has legitimate uses for investigations, but this scale of data sharing requires real public oversight and transparency about agency access and use.
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“License plate readers can be useful for investigations, but the scale of data sharing deserves real public oversight.”
giankucasmm.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Individuals should adopt defensive tools and cities should remove Flock cameras; some cities have already done so.
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“Everyone should add the DeFlock.me app to their phone.”
chrisbotta.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
The system poses risks of data misuse, criminal access, and data storage serving authoritarian ends; concerns go beyond policing to corporate and state control.
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“This is the insidious nature of uncontrolled data streams - who has access and what is done with the information? Your employer tracking your off-duty habits? Your health insurance making shadow risk determinations based on lifestyle?”
svenjohanson.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Jason Hunyar Open-records researcher, 'Have I Been Flocked?' creatorSchaumburg Police Department Local law enforcement agencyWilliam McGeveran University of Minnesota law professor
The record 2 articles and posts · last 30 days
What people are saying 24 voices from 1 site · best of 91 · verbatim
- What do each of the 400+ agencies do with the ALPR data they access?
- What controls exist on querying and use of the shared license plate data?
- Why does Schaumburg share data with non-law-enforcement recipients like universities and private railroads?
- Aug 18
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This is exactly why more and more Americans are fed up with this fascist surveillance state we're being forced into!
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“The Privacy Act prohibits the disclosure of information from a system of records absent of the written consent of the subject individual”
- Aug 17
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Yeah, that's not public security at that point, it's a public invasion of privacy. Big Brother is a lame fuck, like Darth Vader was, Because he has everything and wants what else.
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This needs to be against the law. The 1974 Privacy Act.
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There has been no arrests for the murders of four citizens, perhaps more at the hands of ICE Agents. With all the money, surveillance, and manpower being thrown at this non-issue; I would've thought some nefarious characters would have been apprehended, but that isn't what this is about, is it?
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Could be used for workers comp, disability, medical leave, family leave, parental leave, etc. surveillance. Huge invasions of privacy.
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What could FOUR HUNDRED other agencies need, with what I assume, is mostly incorrect, corrupt information?
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Why is a local police agency sharing ALPR data with more than 400 other agencies ….. and what are each of those 400+ agencies doing with that information?
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Our neighborhood just took them down. 👍
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That won't go over well with the rich that love the Woodfield Mall.
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D
Your tax dollars hard at work... Just not for you
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the camera density in Schaumburg is not so high, tho. compared to Beverly Hills, for example. the list of cities who have removed Flock cameras is good news, at least:
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Go after local and state policing agencies. We are calling for special prosecutors for local police.
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Who doesn't ICE touch- The Eastern European and Russian crime syndicates operating on U.S. soil Why
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We need a bazillion new data centers for something & not for storage of our music & movie libraries!!!! As surveillance of us is increasing at an astonishing rate, they need to store it somewhere!
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This is the insidious nature of uncontrolled data streams - who has access and what is done with the information? Your employer tracking your off-duty habits? ☑️ Your health insurance making shadow risk determinations based on lifestyle? ☑️ Moral judgment being rendered on your activity? ☑️
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Schaumburg also has cameras all over the roof of the Motorola building in I-90 ...it's the tallest building for quite a distance, the area that is being surveilled is startling...based on this article, they're giving all this footage to anyone who wants it as well.
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License plate readers can be useful for investigations, but the scale of data sharing deserves real public oversight.
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Everyone should add the DeFlock.me app to their phone.
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Why are you letting Illinois become a police state? We wanted less government not more. The abuse of these cameras is unbelievable. This shit has to stop now.
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Again @govpritzker.illinois.gov what are you doing absolutely nothing about these!! WHY!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR CHRIST SAKE DO SOMETHING!!!!
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Sounds like the whole country is getting Flocked
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Yup, we’re now a police state. No more privacy, no more freedoms, no more!
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F
Police in Schaumburg, outside of Chicago, are reportedly sharing license plate reader data with more than 400 agencies.