Are FLOCK Surveillance Cameras in Lake County?

Our Take

Credit to Lake County Illinois Community for asking the question most local news outlets skip entirely: is this surveillance gear already bolted to poles in your town? That question shouldn't require a YouTuber to answer it — it should be public record, posted at every city council meeting, with vendor contracts and data-sharing agreements attached. Instead, residents are left playing detective in their own neighborhoods.

This is exactly the pattern we've documented across the country. A police department or a homeowners' association quietly signs up for Flock Safety's network, cameras go up with little to no public hearing, and suddenly every plate that passes through town is logged, timestamped, and shared across a national database that other agencies can query without a warrant. Lake County sits right next to Cook County and the Chicago metro, a region where ALPR adoption has been aggressive, so it would be more surprising if there weren't cameras nearby than if there were.

If you're in Lake County or anywhere else wondering the same thing, don't wait for a video to tell you — check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and if you find something new, help us track it. Then head to our take-action page for practical steps to push back at your next council or board meeting before this becomes permanent infrastructure nobody voted on.