Surveillance Firm Blocks Camera Removal at College

Elgin Community College hired Flock Safety to install six surveillance cameras in April 2025. President Peggy Heinrich thought they would enhance the safety and security of students. They were supposed to help locate stolen cars and missing people.

Heinrich started to wonder if the cameras were making students less safe after seeing news reports. Data captured by Flock cameras in Illinois had been shared with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In September 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained an Elgin Community College student in a campus parking lot.

More than half of students at the far west suburban Chicago campus identify as Latino. Heinrich said enrollment dipped because students were afraid to come to class. College officials decided the cameras had to go out of an abundance of caution for their students.

Elgin Community College staff notified Flock in October 2025 that they wanted to cancel their contract. Within a day, Flock rejected the request and refused to uninstall the equipment on the basis that the company had not breached their agreement. Surveillance experts say the company is financially incentivized to have as many cameras gathering data as possible.

Potential clients are looking for the surveillance network with the greatest reach even in places that no longer want them. Getting the cameras taken down was not as simple as it sounds because Flock retains ownership of the company's equipment. College officials reached out again in December 2025 regarding this issue.

They said they would pay for the remaining five months of the contract and just wanted the cameras taken down. Heinrich said they never received a response back from Flock to that offer. This was when things got weird for the college administration.

Staff began to cover the cameras using black trash bags and zip ties so that they would not be able to capture footage. Workers in an unmarked vehicle, which Heinrich assumed belonged to Flock, repeatedly removed the coverings. This strange dance continued until Elgin Community College's contract with Flock expired in April 2026.

The company uninstalled the cameras for good once the agreement ended in April 2026. This resolved the months-long conflict over who controlled the surveillance equipment on campus. Heinrich said earlier she had wondered if the cameras were making students less safe after seeing news reports.