Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias is investigating the Mount Prospect police department after it shared license-plate reader data with a Texas sheriff seeking a woman who had an abortion. This sharing broke a 2023 Illinois law banning the use of such data to track abortion seekers or undocumented immigrants.
Giannoulias asked the attorney general to review the case and is creating an audit system to ensure police comply with the law.
The law was passed amid fears that states restricting abortion access might use license-plate data to monitor women traveling to Illinois for abortion services.
“License plate readers can be useful for law enforcement, but they must be regulated to prevent abuse and protect innocent people,” Giannoulias said.
Illinois is one of 22 states with laws protecting abortion patients and providers from prosecution by restrictive states.
Privacy expert Albert Fox Cahn warned that police misuse of shared data is a real risk. “We’re basically asking cops to promise they won’t misuse data, then acting surprised when they do,” he said.
Mount Prospect, located 24 miles northwest of Chicago, shared data with Johnson County, Texas, whose sheriff was looking for a woman undergoing a self-managed abortion. The police also shared information about undocumented immigrants outside Illinois, violating state law. From January to April, there were 262 immigration-related data searches.
Mount Prospect Police Chief Michael Eterno did not respond to requests for comment. Deputy Secretary of State Scott Burnham said violations could lead to loss of state funding.
The issue was revealed by 404 Media, which reported that the Texas sheriff requested data from 83,000 license-plate cameras operated by Flock Safety, including those in Mount Prospect.
After the incident, Flock Safety blocked 62 out-of-state agencies from accessing abortion- or immigration-related data. The company now flags and denies requests mentioning those terms.
Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology captures thousands of plates daily. It helps police find stolen vehicles and missing persons but raises privacy concerns, especially after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The Illinois law restricting data sharing was part of efforts to protect abortion rights following the Supreme Court’s decision.
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