Illinois College Covered Flock Surveillance Cameras After Startup Refused Early Contract Cancellation

A dispute between Elgin Community College and automated license plate reader vendor Flock Safety led to months of physical intervention on campus after the startup refused to terminate a camera contract early, according to reporting from The Verge citing the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Illinois institution had six Flock safety cameras installed in April 2025 to monitor campus activity. By September 2025, college administrators grew concerned over the vendor's data-handling practices, citing potential data sharing with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, unsecured camera feeds, and possible access misuse by both law enforcement and Flock personnel.

In October 2025, Elgin Community College formally requested that Flock remove the hardware. Elgin President Peggy Heinrich stated that Flock denied the request on the grounds that the company had not breached its contract terms.

School officials made an additional proposal in December 2025, offering to pay out the remaining five months of the contract in exchange for removing the hardware, but received no response from the company, according to the report.

Facing ongoing surveillance on campus grounds, college staff began covering the six camera units with black trash bags secured by zip ties to block footage capture. Workers in unmarked vehicles—assumed by Heinrich to be Flock technicians—repeatedly took off the coverings during service visits, prompting college personnel to cover them again.

The cycle of covering and uncovering the cameras persisted until the one-year agreement expired in April, at which point Flock removed the units from the college campus.