A joint initiative between the Illinois House and Illinois State Police is bringing cameras to highways across the state.
The move stems from legislation originally passed in 2022. Illinois House Bill 4481 gave Illinois State Police the authority to install highway cameras and automatic license plate readers.
Illinois Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, says $17 million from the State’s Road Fund appropriated for the project means cameras for 12 communities, including Peoria.
“It really picked up during the pandemic, but it started around 2019 where we saw an increase of individuals getting into, frankly, gunfights on the highways in Chicago,” Gordon-Booth said. “So, at the outset, they began to install these highway cameras in order to be able to better solve for those crimes.”
The Illinois State Police declined an interview with WCBU for this story, but provided a statement from director Brendan Kelly, echoing the effectiveness of the cameras.
“The use of automated license plate readers has been a game changer in investigating interstate shootings, as well as vehicular hijackings and thefts,” he said. “They provide us vital leads for our investigation, allowing us to track the events immediately leading up to and following the shootings to identify the vehicle involved. The license plate readers are an invaluable tool that assists us in identifying violent crime suspects.”
A statement from Illinois State Police did not specify exactly how many of the cameras would be installed in the Peoria area, or provide details on where they would be located, but called it a “small number.”
According to the original legislation, once installed, the camera’s can be used by any municipal police department, county sheriff’s office, state police officer, or any other law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the roadway the cameras cover.
Though it is important to note, these can’t be used to enforce “petty offenses,” like speeding or running red lights. Gordon-Booth stresses that these are not so-called “red light cameras.”
“That is still a situation where only Cook County has those,” she said.
As for license plate readers, these aren’t the first ones that area law enforcement will have access to. In a purchase from private company Flock Security, the City of East Peoria has approved the installation of at least 15. In 2022, the Peoria Police department purchased and installed 16 cameras of their own from the same company in “high crime areas.”
According to a Peoria Police Department spokesperson, there are 62 license plate reader cameras currently operating across the city, with nine still waiting to be installed.
Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria declined an interview with WCBU about the new highway cameras, but said in a statement:
“License Plate readers have been a game changer for the Peoria Police Department. They have allowed us to gather information quicker than in the past and provide investigative leads that we otherwise may not have gotten. The Illinois State Police have been outstanding partners in Peoria's efforts to reduce crime. Interstate cameras will continue to allow us to work with Illinois State Police, in our efforts to reduce crime."
Even the Peoria International Airport has approved the use of the cameras for their parking lots.
According to GIS data from the Illinois State Police, the Peoria area has not seen a recorded highway shooting incident in at least the last five years. The closest relevant incident in the same timeframe is a Feb. 2024 fatal officer-involved shooting on I-55 in McLean County.
Still, Gordon-Booth says, though use of the technology rose with highway shootings, they’re useful in solving many types of crime.
“This tool and technology is incredibly helpful in the areas of kidnappings, having the ability to solve crime relative to human trafficking, helping individuals track their vehicles once they have been stolen, helping to track the path of folks that are, you know, doing crime in the community,” she said. “And so that’s why it’s an important tool in my estimation, although we don’t have the highway shootings in the way the city of Chicago has.”
Gordon-Booth says individual privacy is still a concern as additional cameras are rolled out in public spaces.
“We worked closely with the [American Civil Liberties Union] to ensure that we were striking the right balance between, again, providing law enforcement the tools that they need to solve crimes. But then, also wanting to provide boundaries and guardrails around people’s privacy,” she said.
The local installation of license plate reader cameras by the Peoria Police Department in 2022 drew requests for additional qualifications from the Peoria chapter of the ACLU. Eventually leading to the department drafting their camera-use policies in conjunction with the organization.
According to Gordon-Booth, Peoria County's new cameras are set to be installed sometime before the end of this year.
