The Truth About Flock Cameras in Rockford Neighborhoods

Over the past few days I've seen a lot of chatter about Flock cameras in Rockford area neighborhood groups I follow on Facebook.

Here's what the cameras look like in case you are unsure:

Many villages, towns, and cities throughout Illinois have started utilizing Flock license plate readers, and this fact comes with some very mixed reviews.

A lot of residents are concerned about how the information these Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) capture is used and fear they are a violation of our privacy. Hopefully, this information will help ease some of those concerns.

Important Things to Know About Flock Cameras

I get it. Knowing ALPRs are recording our license plates and physical appearance whenever we drive by them is unnerving, but I think we need to remember they are there for our safety.

An article from WIFR says there are currently 160 ALPRs in use in Rockford, and soon the City Council will be voting to add 34 more throughout the city.

Rockford’s cameras record license plate numbers and stores them in a database for law enforcement: Flock owns the equipment/technology, while the city owns the information collected. The numbers await a “ping” from authorities if needed during investigations.

There is a process law enforcement has to go through to access ALPR data, which was designed to protect our personal information, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Illinois is pushing for a public statement to be made on how the information collected is used.

ACLU Illinois believes any ALPR system must:

• Restrict access to only people who are trained to use it, and set limits on how long data can be stored and used.
• Establish a list of specific criminal activities the data can be used for, not just to collect fines or fees.
• Undergo a public audit every year to find privacy violations.
• Protect the data collected.

Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara told WIFR that out of the 12 murders the city saw in 2025, 8 people were arrested with help from ALPR data. That's some solid proof that ALPRs are a vital resource for decreasing crime in the 815.