PEKIN, Ill. – The Pekin City Council on Monday will consider continuing to work with an automatic license plate reader company.
An item on the agenda is asking for the approval of an annual contract with Flock Safety, for 52 cameras and two portable license plate reading cameras.
Council documents show that the contract will cost $173,900, and is covered by a multi-year grant from the state that aims to prevent carjackings and vehicle thefts.
The item comes at the request of Police Chief Seth Ranny. Council documents described using Flock as an “invaluable tool to investigate serious crimes along with ongoing narcotics trafficking investigations within the City of Pekin.”
Without it, the city states there would be “substantial inefficiencies” from needing to remove existing cameras, bidding for a new program, and waiting for the installation of new cameras. The city is also concerned about losing potential evidence, and downtime from having to get permits from the state on where to place the cameras.
The usage of Flock technology has come under heavy scrutiny. Last month, Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey criticized the usage, calling it a “mass surveillance network.”
