A west suburban police department inadvertently shared license plate data for more than a year with federal immigration authorities in apparent violation of Illinois law, according to a state audit and a top village official.
Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins said the breach by his community’s police department began in April 2024 and lasted until Wednesday, when the village was notified by its license-plate scanner vendor, Motorola Solutions, about the mishap, and federal access to the data was revoked.
Neither Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias’ office, which performed the audit, nor Hoskins provided specifics about how many license plate images may have been shared during that period.
“License plate reading cameras serve as powerful surveillance technology, and as secretary of state, I’m committed to ensuring that everyone involved in data sharing is following the law and protecting Illinoisans’ right to privacy,” Giannoulias said in a prepared statement.
A two-year old state law, known as the Illinois TRUST Act, greatly limits police cooperation with federal agencies for immigration enforcement. To ensure compliance, that law authorizes Giannoulias’ office to perform audits of license-plate scanning vendors that contract with state and local governments.
Hoskins told WBEZ that the release was attributable to human error.
“It wasn’t done intentionally,” Hoskins said. “The Forest Park Police Department strives to comply with the Illinois Trust Act, and we don’t share information with authorities so that the federal government can enforce immigration rules.”
Estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau from 2023 show that nearly 9% of Forest Park’s roughly 14,000 residents were foreign born. And of that total, nearly 37% identified themselves as not being U.S. citizens.
Hoskins said foreign-born populations that reside in larger, neighboring suburbs also could have had their license-plate data inadvertently shared with federal immigration enforcement..
Forest Park is “surrounded by communities that have larger Spanish-speaking populations, like Berwyn, Cicero, Melrose Park…so there’s a lot of through traffic,” the mayor said.
According to the village, the breach occurred when a detective investigating an arson accidentally accepted over 200 data-sharing requests from various law enforcement agencies. Among them was Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
That officer has not been subject to any disciplinary action, Hoskins said.
Hoskins said the license-plate readers along village streets are an important investigative tool for his police officers “for maintaining a safe community, not for sharing information with the federal government as part of any kind of intimidation campaign.”
Giannoulias’ office declined to comment on whether the village might face any consequences as a result of releasing the data.
Two weeks ago, his office released another audit showing leading license plate scanner vendor, Flock Safety, also shared data with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That company contracts with several state and local governments and acknowledged partnering with the feds in a national, pilot data-sharing program.
The company announced in mid-August it had ended that partnership with the federal agency.
Mawa Iqbal covers Illinois government and politics for WBEZ and is based in Springfield.