Bourbonnais, Illinois — FOIA Records 26-2081 & 26-2082

Your Town Is Watching.
So Is Almost Everyone Else.

By Stan Gromer, Editor & Publisher, The Bourbs

Bourbonnais operates 12 Flock Safety ALPR cameras whose data is shared with 1,761+ law enforcement agencies — including a U.S. Air Force Base and three state corrections departments. In December 2025, Flock suffered a data breach exposing live camera feeds to the open internet.

0 Cameras in Bourbonnais
0 Agencies That Can Access Your Data
0 Vehicle Captures Per Month
0 Day Data Retention Window
0 5-Year Contract Cost
Section 1

The Bourbonnais Flock System

Twelve cameras at major intersections photograph every passing vehicle, capturing plate number, make/model/color, distinctive features, and millisecond timestamps — all uploaded to Flock's cloud for 30 days, accessible to 1,761+ agencies.

12 Camera Locations

Contract at a Glance

Term
Jul 2023 – Dec 2028 (Resolution 23-1540)
Annual Cost
$32,500 / year ($162,500 total)
Auto-Renews
24 months unless 30-day notice given
Competitive Bidding
Waived by 2/3 board vote
FLOCK SURVEILLANCE TRACKER
28-DAY CAPTURE WINDOW
Feb 9 – Mar 8, 2026
Section 2

What They Collected: One Resident's Vehicle

Through a FOIA request, a Bourbonnais resident received 78 captures over 28 days across 8 of 12 camera locations — averaging 2.8 photographs per day. During the 30-day retention window after each capture, any of 1,761+ agencies could search and find this vehicle's location history. Watch how Flock cameras reconstruct a complete movement profile from routine daily driving. Click any capture to see the actual surveillance photo.

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Flock capture photo
Date
--
Time
--
Camera
--
GPS
--
Vehicle ID
--
Accessible To
1,761 agencies
BOURBONNAIS IL PD
DATASET PERIOD
Jul 2025 – Mar 2026

FLOCK SAFETY ALPR — SEARCH AUDIT

MONTHLY SEARCH VOLUME

Total queries submitted to Flock Safety network per month

TOP REASON BY MONTH

The leading search reason shifts each month — reflecting case load, not random browsing.

HOURLY DISTRIBUTION (CST)

When officers are running Flock searches

All 3,594 searches mapped to hour of day (converted from UTC to Central time).

4:00 PM Peak Hour (353)
8:00 PM Secondary Peak (289)
10:00 PM Lowest Activity (38)
62% Between 8 AM – 8 PM
SEARCH REASONS — TOP 10

Why officers searched the Flock network

ALL CATEGORIES

Full Breakdown

⚠ Officer names visible in July 2025 only (unredacted audit). All other months: names redacted by Bourbonnais PD.
OFFICER SEARCH ACTIVITY — JULY 2025

Individual officer search counts (411 total searches)

OFFICER LEADERBOARD

17 Officers Conducted Searches in July 2025

Data Breach

The Flock Safety Data Breach — What Happened

In December 2025, researcher Benn Jordan discovered Flock Safety's Condor PTZ cameras were streaming live video — with no authentication — directly to the open internet.

🔴
Not a hack. A design failure. These cameras had no passwords, no encryption, and no access controls. The feeds were discoverable through Shodan, a public search engine for internet-connected devices. Anyone could watch.

Timeline of Events

What Was Exposed

Bourbonnais uses Flock Falcon ALPR cameras, not the Condor PTZ model directly affected. But if Flock couldn't secure live video feeds, how confident should we be they're securing 30 days of license plate data shared with 1,761+ agencies?
Section 3

The Sharing Network — 1,761+ Agencies

1,761 agencies have confirmed access to Bourbonnais camera data — from local PDs to a U.S. Air Force Base and three state corrections departments. No documented board authorization exists for most of these relationships, and Illinois law (625 ILCS 5/2-130) requires signed written affirmations from every out-of-state agency before sharing — almost certainly not on file.

Showing notable agencies confirmed in FOIA records. The full list contains 1,761+ entries.

Real-World Consequences

The Risks They Don't Talk About

Section 4

Policy Gaps

Bourbonnais uses Lexipol's standard Policy 430 — never fully customized. It still contains unfilled template placeholders ("[department/office]" in Sections 430.3, 430.5, 430.7) and lacks protections now standard in municipalities nationwide.

Click any item to expand. Sorted by severity.

Section 5

Recommendations

Concrete steps drawn from other cities, the contract terms, and Illinois law. Sorted by urgency.

🔴 Do It Now
🟠 Within 90 Days
🔵 Longer Term
Section 6

National Context

Over 30 municipalities have canceled, suspended, or restricted their Flock contracts since 2025. Every one faced the same issues Bourbonnais faces today.

Section 7

Exit Options

The contract runs through December 2028 and auto-renews for 24-month increments unless 30-day notice is given. Mark November 1, 2028 now. Here are the exit paths, from easiest to hardest.

Section 8

FOIA Results

FOIA requests 26-2081 and 26-2082 were filed Feb 23, 2026. Deputy Chief Sztuba responded March 9 (16 days). The response was cooperative — but two "no records exist" declarations stand out: no documentation of the actual retention period configured in Flock, and zero engagement with the Secretary of State's 2025 ALPR compliance audit.

Item Requested Outcome Significance
Section 9

Take Action

Here are the most direct actions available to Bourbonnais residents right now.

📋 Attend a Board Meeting

Ask the Board directly: "What steps are being taken to restrict unauthorized federal access to our camera data?"

Village Website →

📧 Contact Your Trustees

Email your trustees citing the 1,761 sharing partners and federal agency access. Ask for a public briefing on the Flock program.

Email the Village →

📁 File Your Own FOIA

Under Illinois FOIA (5 ILCS 140/1), you can request ALPR data about your own vehicle. File with the agency's FOIA Officer. Allow 5 business days.

Read the Illinois FOIA Act →

🛡️ Know Your Rights

The EFF's Street Level Surveillance project is the definitive citizen resource on ALPR rights and challenging unlawful data sharing.

EFF Street Level Surveillance →

Credit Where It's Due

Deputy Chief Jason Sztuba responded to every FOIA request promptly, professionally, and in good faith — offering context beyond what was legally required. That transparency deserves recognition. This project is about accountability, not antagonism.

The Bottom Line

There is a meaningful difference between a tool that helps Bourbonnais PD investigate local incidents and a system that feeds every resident's daily movements into a nationwide surveillance network searchable by thousands of agencies. The department's own policy built in safeguards — but those safeguards are entirely bypassed by how Flock's network actually works.

— From correspondence with Deputy Chief Jason Sztuba, Bourbonnais Police Department

Changelog

March 18, 2026 (evening) — Added Documents page with full FOIA correspondence timeline. Added acknowledgment for Deputy Chief Sztuba's cooperation. Added Documents link to navigation.

March 18, 2026 — Fixed mobile navigation (added hamburger menu). Fixed light-mode nav styling for cross-browser compatibility. Combined "Your Data" and "Live Tracker" into a single unified section for clarity. Updated "Take Action" section tone. Added deputy chief correspondence excerpt to Bottom Line.

March 17, 2026 — Initial site launch with FOIA analysis, surveillance tracker, search audit dashboard, and policy review.