Elgin Community College Asked Flock to Remove Cameras, Company Refused, Report Says

Elgin Community College had the six Flock safety cameras installed in April 2025 to "enhance the safety and security of students," The Verge reported. By September of that year, the school’s administration had grown concerned that Flock was sharing data with Customs and Border Patrol, that camera feeds were not properly secured, and that both law enforcement and company employees were abusing access to the data.

In October 2025, the college requested that Flock remove the cameras. Elgin President Peggy Heinrich said Flock rejected the request and told the school it had not violated its contract, according to The Verge. The Verge reported, citing the Chicago Sun-Times, that school officials reached out again in December, offered to pay for the remaining five months of the contract, and repeated their request that the cameras be removed. They received no response.

Heinrich said Elgin Community College staff then began covering the cameras with black trash bags and zip ties so they could not capture footage. But workers in an unmarked vehicle, which Heinrich assumed belonged to Flock, repeatedly removed the coverings, she said.

“We were kind of in a back and forth for a bit where we’d cover, and then when they’d come to service, they’d remove,” Heinrich said, according to The Verge. “Then we’d cover and then they’d remove.”

The back-and-forth continued until April of this year, when the college’s contract expired and Flock removed the cameras, The Verge reported.