Despite some residents’ and village trustees’ concerns about excessive surveillance, data privacy and racial disparity in traffic stops, Oak Park’s village board voted 4-3 Tuesday night to renew Flock Group Inc.’s contract for two more years.
Flock provides license plate recognition cameras and software services to Oak Park, which the police department typically uses to find stolen cars or wanted persons, according to village officials. The cameras are motion-activated and take high-resolution pictures of the rear of a vehicle, officials state. The software then analyzes the plate number, color, make and model of a vehicle. Oak Park has eight of these cameras.
Trustees Brian Straw, Susan Buchanan and Chibuike Enyia voted against the Flock contract. The four trustees who approved it did so with a few caveats. Those include restricting Flock’s use to stolen license plates and “violent” stolen vehicles, allowing for use in aid of Amber or Silver alerts, and only allowing data sharing outside of Illinois at the police chief’s discretion.
Community reactions
Some residents against renewing the Flock contract said most, if not all, of “erroneous” traffic stops for stolen vehicles were of Black drivers. These are stops where the reported stolen car was no longer considered stolen.
One concerned resident, Mika Yamamoto, read a letter signed by members of the Asian-American community, saying that Flock cameras have led to traffic stops that disproportionately affected Black individuals, who experience the most police violence in the United States. She said Police Chief Shatonya Johnson has dismissed this concern.
“If 100% of erroneous stops were of Asian drivers, we would be horrified,” Yamamoto said. “If this fact was dismissed by the chief of police, we would be terrified … We demand the immediate cancelation of the Flock contract which has, in the words of a CPOC (Citizens Police Oversite Committee) member, ‘perfected racism.’”
Another resident, John Duffy, said Oak Park needs to honor its commitment to racial equity protocols by increasing transparency. Others agreed.
“The civil rights I and other non-Black POC benefit from were secured by the sacrifices of the Black community,” another resident against the contract, Yoko Terretta, said. “I want to live in a village where Black lives matter.”
But despite some residents sharing their concerns about Flock cameras potentially leading to inequitable traffic stops, several others said they do not believe Flock cameras are the source of racial disparity in policing. The cameras do not capture the age, gender or race of an individual, they pointed out.
Donovan Pepper, the former chair of the CPOC, said while the concern about racial bias in policing is understandable, eliminating Flock cameras is not warranted as a response to it.
Demitrous Cook, a police officer and two-time retired police chief in other Illinois municipalities, said part of his job is to protect civil rights for people of all races. But Flock is a benefit to officers trying to apprehend criminals, not a detriment.
Another Oak Park resident, Aisha Coleman, who said while she can’t speak on behalf of all Black individuals, questioned why individuals who are not Black were trying to speak on behalf of the Black community. The technology is needed to keep residents safe, she said.
“No one lost their lives that were stopped,” said Anthony Coleman, a retired Oak Park police officer. “They were inconvenienced.”
Kevin Barnhart, the active chair of the CPOC, however, said he’s against Flock. The police didn’t have these cameras in 2022 and before, he said, and were still able to do their jobs. Chief Johnson responded that in 2022 Oak Park had a larger department.
“We are struggling,” she said. “Crime has evolved since 2022 and it continues to evolve. Removing this tool will set the police department back. It’s like saying ‘Go back on the street and patrol by foot.’”
Police response
Johnson said the police department is open to strengthening its policy, but Flock is an objective tool that the department needs. The department is now down 38 sworn officers, she said, almost a third of its force. They’re leaving, at least partially, because OPPD lacks resources and technology, she said. Flock is an investigative tool that allows officers to help deter crime, not eliminate it singlehandedly, she said.
“The only tool that we have, as a police department, currently, that in isolation will help us to eliminate crime is our officers and we’re down,” Johnson said. “So, we need the extra resources to ensure that we are doing everything we can … to keep the community safe.”
The department has already engaged with residents at outreach events and met with commissions like the CPOC and Civic Information Systems Commission to create a comprehensive policy to help address issues like police oversight and racial disparity and to safeguard privacy, Johnson said.
Issues occur, she said, not as a direct result of Flock capturing information about stolen cars, but when cars are not reported as recovered in the law enforcement database. This could lead to officers pulling over individuals when the car is no longer stolen. But Johnson said the department has received zero complaints when officers are engaging with registered owners.
“What happens when you remove this technology out of the hands of the police department is you remove the ability to objectively make investigative stops,” she said. “[That leaves] it to the police department to make subjective stops, where we can see the race, the age, the sex of the driver.”
One way to help reduce the number of individuals pulled over who have already recovered their cars, Johnson said, is to have officers only engage independently within a certain time period. For example, they could require officers to collect a third-party verification, perhaps from another police department, that a vehicle is still stolen after 24 hours, before engaging in a stop.
Flock has also aided Oak Park officers in taking six guns off the streets, Johnson said. In her experience, individuals don’t steal cars just to go “joyriding,” she said. They often go on to commit other crimes.
“My goal here, for our village, is to utilize this data to deter crime … and to bring individuals to justice,” she said. “We’ll do whatever it is that we need to do to ensure that we’re not causing harm.”
Data privacy
Dan Murdock, a representative from Flock, said his company does not own the data it collects in Oak Park. The village does, he said. Flock also cannot resell the data, per the contract. However, in a case of emergency or extreme circumstance, Flock could be legally required to share data. Examples include a terrorist threat or subpoena.
In partnering with Flock, police departments that Oak Park permits to have access can search OPPD’s Flock database for information. Oak Park, if permitted, can search theirs, too. Agencies which can’t access Flock technology may ask for the department to provide data. Limiting other departments’ search ability is also possible.
Other trustee comments
Trustee Lucia Robinson questioned what police would do if they didn’t have Flock. Johnson said they’d likely have to ask residents for footage from home-based cameras or ask other communities to assist with investigations, which she called an ineffective use of staff time.
Without Flock, Oak Park could also become an “unintended cover,” Robinson pointed out, for individuals with stolen vehicles.
“We’re all human beings and our inherent biases get into the process,” said Trustee Ravi Parakkat, who voted in favor of the contract. “If anything, the technology limits [bias].”
Trustee Cory Wesley said due to negative experiences with other police, he doesn’t trust police outside of Oak Park to be accessing Oak Park’s Flock database. He pushed for the approved stipulations on the Flock contract, including only sharing data with municipalities outside of Illinois after the chief’s approval.
But limiting access to other states’ Flock database could hinder effective policing, Johnson said.
“I don’t believe that crime stays within the state of Illinois,” Johnson said. “I would prefer my investigative team to have the ability to access Flock to its full capacity.”
Enyia, who voted against the contract, also shared he’s had negative situations with police officers, and has heard from residents about the harm that some Flock-related traffic stops can cause. People will commit crimes whether or not cameras are installed, he said.
The village board also approved an ordinance to “promote transparency and to protect civil rights and civil liberties with respect to law enforcement surveillance technology” on Tuesday night.