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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.
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