Residents urge Glendale Heights to terminate Flock camera contract, cite privacy and safety risks

Lindsay Schilling told the Village of Glendale Heights board she had reviewed the village's contract with Flock via a FOIA request and called it “one-sided, dangerous, and does not serve Glendale Heights residents.” She urged the board to terminate the contract and remove all 25 Flock-related cameras from the village.

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety,” Schilling began, then cited examples she said show risks of misuse, misidentification and insufficient safety standards. She told trustees the contract permits Flock to update its system without village approval — potentially adding capabilities such as facial recognition — and that it recommends a seven-day retention window while the contract allows 30 days. Schilling also said the contract includes language limiting Flock’s warranties and shifts legal responsibility for misidentification or misuse to the village.

Multiple other residents echoed Schilling’s concerns. One speaker said agencies in several Illinois municipalities and many nationwide have suspended or canceled Flock deployments; Samantha Markwell said the technology has produced false hits elsewhere and put innocent people at risk. “There are people, innocent women and children, getting pulled over at gunpoint because a letter was misread,” Markwell said, warning that errors in license-plate reads can have dangerous consequences.

Speakers requested full transparency of Flock-related spending and audit logs, confirmation that no Glendale Heights residents have been wrongfully stopped or detained based on Flock alerts, and immediate review of the contract with a possible move to terminate if concerns cannot be resolved. The board did not announce a response or corrective action at the meeting.