(The Center Square) – The Illinois Secretary of State’s Office has called for an investigation into an Illinois police department after it violated state law by sharing data from automatic license plate readers.
Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has asked the attorney general to investigate the Mount Prospect Police Department after it shared data with a sheriff’s office in Texas seeking a woman who planned to have an abortion, despite a state law prohibiting it. The sheriff’s office in Texas explained that it initiated the search because the woman’s family was concerned for her safety.
“This law sets common sense standards and protocols for how this data should be utilized and we need to make sure that other government entities and police from out-of-state abide by our rules and our laws,” Giannoulias said Thursday during a news conference.
Illinois passed a law in 2023 that banned the distribution of license plate data to track women seeking abortions or to find undocumented immigrants. If a law enforcement agency violates the law, they could lose access to the data and eligibility for federal and state grants.
Giannoulias said the camera company, Flock Safety, identified 46 out-of-state agencies to have illegally accessed the data and their access has been shut off. The cameras take photos of passing license plates thousands of times a day.
Giannoulias said the purpose of the cameras is to help law enforcement fight crime.
“When this data is being used to track people getting abortions or for [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to use to track down individuals based on immigration policy, that is a very slippery slope,” said Giannoulias.
Illinois has become a haven for abortion seekers. According to a Guttmacher Institute study, about 35,000 out-of-state patients traveled to Illinois for an abortion last year.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gained access to the network of license plate reader data, according to 404 Media. The data, obtained from Danville revealed more than 4,000 searches between June 2024 and May 2025.
