East Peoria City Council members were unmoved by a protest and public comments urging them to rethink Flock police cameras.
The council unanimously green lit a contract for 10 more automatic license plate readers [ALPRs] at Tuesday’s meeting, approving $156,500 to be paid over five years.
About 10 people gathered at Levee Park to protest outside the government building before the meeting began. Several of the demonstrators were among those who also spoke during the public comment period. They expressed various concerns about privacy and questioned the constitutionality of the devices that have come under great scrutiny across the country amid a wave of allegations of police misusing the technology.
Many said the unanimous vote was a foregone conclusion, a sentiment Mayor John Kahl largely agreed with.
Kahl reminded people at the meeting that East Peoria’s procedures require most resolutions to receive two readings spaced a month apart. Kahl said items are placed on the consent agenda, as the Flock contract was Tuesday, after trustees have made up their minds.
“Why this is on the consent agenda isn’t arrogance,” he said. “It’s just every item on the consent agenda at every meeting we hold is on the consent agenda because there was no disapproval or dissent.”
'Vote me out'
The council listened to half an hour of public commenters anyway, all of whom spoke in opposition of Flock.
Ryan Gale was among them. He organizes against Flock in East Peoria and said he doesn’t believe the city council has been listening.
According to trustee Michael Sutherland, he might be right.
Gale grew up in East Peoria, but currently lives in Creve Coeur. Sutherland’s spirited comments indicated he wasn’t interested in opinions other than those of East Peorians.
“I won’t listen to you if you’re not from East Peoria,” he said. “This is an East Peoria City Council meeting. If you have a problem somewhere else, then go where you live and solve it.”
Gale said behind closed doors, he thinks council members have the city’s best interest in mind.
“But I do think that publicly they back each other,” he said. “And the general consensus is if we back the police we’ll stay in power.”
That’s where Gale might be wrong, at least about Sutherland, who was unapologetic in his support for first responders.
“There’s an election coming up. Vote me out. Because I’m standing my ground and I don’t give a shit what anybody thinks.”
Others offered less colorful comments, noting discussions with Flock supporters outside the council chambers.
Daniel Decker said he shares concerns about any third-party company whose business model is based on financial profits. What helped, he said, was a tutorial from the police department that offered to conduct a search on his own car.
“I don’t know if there are other communities that have other technology that the city of East Peoria does not subscribe to, but what I saw is exactly what Chief [David] Catton mentioned, the mayor mentioned last meeting, where it was individualized pictures of my license plate. It was just a still photo, and it showed where I was at the time.”
That included pictures of his car outside the city, captured by another agency’s cameras while Decker was vacationing in Missouri.
Kahl said he "can't understand why all of the sudden this has blown up in the way it has," but he also expressed appreciation to those who scrutinize it.
"We scrutinize stuff all the time," he said. "You don't see it. We have to do our homework before we arrive to take a vote on something. Some of the things that have been brought to our attention — they don't get ignored. We look into 'em. And some of your concerns are valid."
'We want those guardrails'
In an interview with WCBU after the meeting, East Peoria Police Chief David Catton said the technology is a critical tool for his department.
“Not too long ago, somebody was going to take their life and had a handgun with them to kill themselves. We were able to save that person and get them the help they needed with this technology," he said..
“It is actually saving lives in the City of East Peoria. In the end, that’s who we’re trying to protect ... and we feel like we’re doing a good job with it.”
Catton aims to lead the way in Central Illinois, saying he’ll help any agency in need of support running its own program.
But he wouldn’t disclose any conversations Creve Coeur Chief Dale King said he's had with him about Flock in the wake of allegations former chief Justin Egan and two other officers may have abused the technology.
He also declined to say which agencies have data-sharing agreements with East Peoria.
State law prohibits police agencies from publicly sharing identifying information from their Flock data sets. Catton said his interpretation of the law extends to which agencies search his cameras for investigations.
“We abide by what the state statute says,” he said. “It says all ALPR data shall be kept confidential.”
Asked more pointedly, Catton would not confirm or deny whether Creve Coeur officers can access cameras in East Peoria. Egan is currently the subject of an Illinois State Police investigation alleging he used Flock to track his ex-wife.
Catton repeated prior sentiments that he can only control what East Peoria does. But he also said he expects coming changes to state and federal laws surrounding Flock use.
“We as law enforcement support guardrails,” he said. “We understand the privacy concern. It’s a real concern, as you’ve heard tonight.”
Catton said East Peoria goes one step further than state law, tightening the city’s policies as a response to such concerns.
“We used to go to quarterly audits; we have now moved to 30-day audits,” he said. “We have listened to what the public wants.”
East Peoria officers authorized to search the data also must cite a call for service and a reason for running it.
“You cannot run a search without that number,” he said. “We have required that since we enacted that program in 2022. This was a requirement back then; it’s still a requirement today. So, the system can’t be abused in that aspect.”
Catton said this isn’t mandatory everywhere — but should be.
“I think that’s what gets lost in everybody’s emotions of this system,” he said. “We want those guardrails and that’s what we’re trying to put in place. …There’s nothing negative that could come from a report number that could easily be cross referenced.”
