The Niles Police Department's network of license plate reader cameras scanned nearly 1 million vehicles in a single month, according to the department's public transparency portal.
The Flock Safety transparency page for the Niles Police Department shows 21 cameras detected 974,219 unique vehicles in the 30 days ending Oct. 22. The system also generated 7,940 hotlist hits during that window. Those hits mean a scanned plate matched an entry on a national or statewide watch list, including the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), Illinois Leads and the NCMEC Amber Alert database.
Officers ran 175 searches through the system in the same 30-day span.
The portal also highlights two 2024 cases where the technology played a role in homicide investigations.
In one case, the Detroit Police Department issued a nationwide alert for a suspect wanted in a homicide. Niles investigators tracked the suspect's vehicle after it was captured by a camera within the village, according to the portal. The suspect was found inside the vehicle, arrested and transferred to Detroit Police Department custody.
In a separate case, a homicide occurred within the Village of Niles in 2024. Investigators used the plate reader data to identify the suspect after the person had used a vehicle to arrive at the scene and flee, the portal states. No further details about either case appear on the portal.
The camera network has been expanding. The Niles Park District Board voted 5-0 on Jan. 21, 2025, to approve installation of a license plate reader camera on Pioneer Park property, according to board meeting minutes. The camera at that location would capture northbound Harlem Avenue traffic. The installation came at no cost to the Park District.
Treasurer Genualdi made the motion, seconded by Vice President O'Brien. President O'Donovan and Commissioners Hynes and Strzelecki also voted yes.
The department's portal spells out privacy guardrails. The cameras detect license plates and vehicles but do not use facial recognition. They cannot identify people, gender or race, according to the page. Data is retained for 30 days.
The department states the data is used for law enforcement purposes only and is never sold to third parties. Prohibited uses include immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation, targeting based on a protected class and personal use. All hotlist hits must be verified by a human before officers take action.
The portal lists fields for agencies sharing data with Niles and agencies receiving Niles data, but those fields are not populated. It is unclear whether the department shares plate reader data with neighboring police departments.
Residents can view the full transparency portal, including policies and usage statistics, on the Niles Police Department's Flock Safety page.
