Petition to Mayor [Lara Sanoica], City Manager [Rob Sabo], Police Chief [Anthony Peluso] and Rolling Meadows City Council
We, the undersigned residents and community members, call on Mayor Sanoica, City Manager Sabo, Police Chief Peluso, and City Council of Rolling Meadows to immediately cancel the city’s contract(s) with Flock Safety and any other automated license plate reader (ALPR) vendors, remove all Flock/ALPR cameras from city property, and prohibit future ALPR contracts until the City adopts a public, democratically approved policy that fully protects civil liberties.
Why this action is necessary
- ALPRs create continuous, searchable records of where people drive, which can be used to track and profile residents, protestors, immigrants, patients, and other vulnerable groups – and have been misused by law enforcement officers in stalking and other abuses.
- Flock’s networked model and widespread data-sharing make it easy for outside agencies (including federal immigration enforcement) and other jurisdictions to query location histories, increasing the risk of cross-jurisdictional surveillance and harm; Members of Congress have warned that Flock’s “National Lookup” and data-access practices enable searches related to immigration enforcement and reproductive health across jurisdictions, showing the system can be used to target immigrants and others—undermining local protections and exposing residents to federal immigration actions.
- Evidence and reporting show ALPRs and similar surveillance technologies do not reliably deliver community safety and can intensify state violence rather than prevent it.
- Reporting from the ACLU documents public statements by Flock’s CEO that align the company with partisan political positions and aggressive rhetoric, raising concerns about the company’s impartiality and about mission-driven data uses that could target political opponents or marginalized communities.
- Flock-collected location data can be used to influence insurance rates, enable targeted advertising to vehicle owners, or be sold to location-data brokers—creating additional avenues for profiling, discrimination, and privacy harms, to the extent such commercial uses occur or are permitted under vendor contracts and data-sharing practices.
- Dozens of municipalities and counties have canceled Flock or similar contracts after community review and organizing; Rolling Meadows should instead prioritize investments proven to improve safety: police officers, housing, mental health, youth services, and community-based violence prevention.
Our demands
- Immediately terminate all contracts and agreements with Flock Safety and any ALPR vendors (including pilot agreements and data-sharing arrangements).
- Remove all Flock/ALPR cameras and related hardware from city-owned property and public rights-of-way.
- Require the deletion of all ALPR data collected by or accessible to the City and a public accounting of whohas accessed the data to date.
- Adopt an ordinance prohibiting future procurement of ALPR systems or any mass-location surveillance system without explicit voter approval or a supermajority council vote after a public hearing.
- Invest the city funds budgeted for ALPR deployment into proven community safety priorities and publish a plan for reallocation.
We ask that the City honor the will of Rolling Meadows residents who value civil liberties, transparent governance, and community-based safety, and that the City act now to end this invasive surveillance program.