- Illinois temporarily blocked the Louisville Metro Police Department’s access to its license plate surveillance system.
- The Courier Journal learned of that development in an LMPD internal affairs investigation into an officer’s use of the department’s Flock Safety automated license plate reader system.
- Following the investigation of how the officer’s Flock account was used, two LMPD officers were suspended while an additional high-ranking officer was demoted.
The state of Illinois blocked the Louisville Metro Police Department’s access to its license plate surveillance system after an LMPD detective allegedly aided a federal agency in conducting immigration-related searches, records from an internal affairs investigation show.
Those searches ran afoul of an Illinois law that bars automated license plate reader information from being shared with law enforcement for investigations related to immigration status or reproductive health care.
Flock Safety automated license plate readers, which are used across Louisville, are a powerful tool allowing police to track vehicles as they move around the city and set up automatic alerts for when a vehicle of interest passes a camera. Law enforcement agencies are able to share their own camera networks with other departments, allowing officers to cast a wide net when searching for an individual…