Elgin College’s Flock Cameras Stayed Until Contract Expired

• Elgin Community College asked Flock Safety to end its agreement and remove six campus cameras in October 2025.
• President Peggy Heinrich says Flock rejected the request, then did not respond when the college offered to pay the remaining five months.
• College staff covered the cameras with bin bags and cable ties; workers in an unmarked vehicle repeatedly took the coverings off.
• The cameras were removed after the contract expired in April 2026. The college’s specific contract has not been reviewed.

Flock’s cameras stayed on Elgin Community College’s campus for months after the college asked for them to be removed. Heinrich told WBEZ that Flock rejected the October 2025 request within a day, saying the company had not breached its agreement. In December, the college offered to pay for the remaining five months if Flock would take the cameras down. Heinrich said the college received no reply. ¹

The college then covered the cameras with black bin bags and cable ties so they could not capture footage, Heinrich said. She described workers arriving in an unmarked vehicle during service visits and removing the coverings. Heinrich assumed they were associated with Flock; their identity and employer have not been independently established. ¹

The cameras came down after the agreement expired in April 2026, according to WBEZ. The college’s signed contract was not available in the records reviewed, so its precise cancellation, payment and equipment-removal terms remain unclear. WBEZ reports that Flock retains ownership of its equipment. ¹

The dispute began amid growing concern about who could search the data. Flock’s automatic licence-plate readers record passing vehicles’ number plates and details such as make, model, dents and bumper stickers. Elgin installed six in April 2025, initially expecting them to help find stolen cars and missing people, WBEZ reported. ¹

In August 2025, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said a state audit found that US Customs and Border Protection had accessed Illinois Flock data without proper safeguards and in violation of state law. The state’s announcement described a statewide finding; it did not identify Elgin Community College’s cameras as a source of that data. ²

A month later, the college confirmed that federal immigration authorities had taken a student into custody in a campus car park. The college said it would provide no further details because of privacy protections and an ongoing federal process. Heinrich told WBEZ that a college audit found no evidence federal immigration agents had accessed Elgin’s Flock data. That reported audit result does not establish whether the cameras played any role in the student’s detention; the reporting does not show a connection. ³¹

Elgin’s cameras are now gone, but the contract dispute has practical implications for institutions considering similar systems: ending the relationship may not mean the equipment disappears straight away. WBEZ reports that Flock cameras remain at other Illinois colleges, and that records show immigration-related searches of data from several other campuses. Those searches do not establish that Elgin’s data was accessed. ⁴¹

Footnotes

1. WBEZ, “To protect immigrant students, a Chicago-area college told Flock to remove its cameras. The company refused”. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Illinois Secretary of State, “Giannoulias’ Audit Finds License Plate Reader Company in Violation of State Law”. ↩

3. Elgin Community College, “Reported ICE Activity on Campus”. ↩

4. WBEZ, “5 Illinois public universities use Flock cameras to surveil campus, records show”. ↩