Constantly scanning vehicles across the region.
Cameras and drones across the five cities.
Drained from local budgets, year after year.
Note on transparency: Compiled from public records and news reporting, and presented in good faith to the best of our knowledge. Details may be incomplete or change as contracts are renewed. Spotted an error? Let us know and we’ll fix it. We’ve focused on the big five cities, but this network is spreading. Public records are still pending for smaller surrounding municipalities, meaning the true scale of tracking is larger.
See For Yourself
Flock Camera and ALPR Locations in the Quad Cities
Points are ALPR cameras volunteers mapped on OpenStreetMap through the DeFlock project. This is not all of them.
Every City, Compared
Here is exactly how much of your money is being spent to watch your community, pulled directly from public records.
| City | Camera Feeds | Total Cost | Annual Cost | Contract Term | Funded By | Escalations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bettendorf | 61 feeds (6 Flock + 55 Wing) | $216,700 | $105,000 | 24 months | City budget | $200K police drones |
| Rock Island | 21 | $275,000 | $55,000 | 60 months (5 years) | Federal ARPA + city budget | Raven audio sensors |
| East Moline | 16 | $217,650 | $42,500 | 60 months (5 years) | City budget | None |
| Davenport | 8 | $65,550 | ~$32,775 | 24 months | City budget | None |
| Moline | 9 | $27,625 (year 1) | $28,500 | 11 months, then 24-mo renewals | City budget | Integrates private cameras |
The Timeline
East Moline begins feeding a Flock network under an early agreement.
Rock Island buys its first 9 cameras with $65,950 in federal ARPA (COVID-relief) funds.
East Moline and Rock Island each sign five-year Flock deals, the longest terms in the QC.
Davenport's mayor signs on. The city refuses to disclose where its cameras are.
Moline signs on, and its chief eyes folding in the city's own Avigilon cameras.
The Rock Island County Sheriff adds a separate 8-camera system to the region.
An audit by the Illinois Attorney General finds East Moline's data may have reached U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This is a violation of Illinois law.
Rock Island pilots gunshot-listening sensors. Bettendorf approves $200,000 for police drones.
How the Surveillance is Escalating
These contracts rarely stop at basic license plate readers. Each city represents a different, troubling expansion of surveillance technology.
Bettendorf: Watching from Above
Bettendorf didn’t just buy cameras; it wired 55 cameras it already owned into Flock’s network. Residents pay more per year for surveillance than any other QC agency. In 2026, the city escalated the tracking by approving a $200,000 Flock Safety “Drone First Responder” program. No Quad Cities community is watched more closely, from the streets to the sky.
Take Action: Contact Mayor Robert Gallagher or attend the next City Council meeting (1st & 3rd Tuesdays, 7:00 PM at City Hall).
The receipts
Rock Island: Using Relief Funds to Listen In
Rock Island runs the largest Flock deployment in the Quad Cities, originally purchased with federal COVID-relief dollars meant for pandemic recovery. Now, the city has approved a “Flock Safety Raven” pilot program. This turns a network that watches into one that also listens, using acoustic sensors to monitor neighborhoods for sound.
Take Action: Contact Mayor Ashley Harris or attend the next City Council meeting (2nd & 4th Mondays, 5:45 PM at City Hall).
The receipts
East Moline: Breaking Trust and Possibly State Law
East Moline locked residents into a massive five-year contract. In 2025, the reality of this data collection came to light: an audit by the Illinois Attorney General found that East Moline’s camera data may have been searched by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a direct violation of Illinois law.
Read the KWQC Report
Read the KWQC report into East Moline camera data reaching U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Take Action: Contact Mayor Reggie Freeman or attend the next City Council meeting (1st & 3rd Mondays, 6:30 PM at City Hall).
The receipts
Davenport: Surveillance in the Dark
Davenport is the only major Quad City that outright refuses to tell its residents where these cameras are located, citing a state secrecy exemption. The public pays for the system, but the public isn’t allowed to know where it watches from.
Take Action: Contact Mayor Jason Gordon or attend the next City Council meeting (2nd & 4th Wednesdays, 5:30 PM at City Hall).
The receipts
Moline: Expanding into Private Spaces
Moline proves that this surveillance won’t stop at public intersections. The police chief noted that Flock can “embed on our Avigilon city-camera system,” and the city has taken over the cameras at SouthPark Mall, folding them into its own network alongside private cameras like Lowe’s. This creates one massive, searchable dragnet connecting police, city, and business cameras.
Take Action: Contact Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati or attend the next City Council meeting (Tuesdays, 6:00 PM at City Hall).
The receipts
Beyond the City Limits: The County Sheriffs
The tracking doesn’t stop when you leave town. Two county sheriff’s offices run their own license-plate networks on the roads between and around the towns.
Rock Island County Sheriff
On top of the city departments, the Rock Island County Sheriff runs a separate 8-camera Flock system ($56,000), signed in February 2025, ensuring that rural roads and county lines are closely monitored.
Scott County Sheriff
The Scott County Sheriff operates around 32 automated license plate readers from Vigilant Solutions, a Motorola company ($64,799), along the Interstate 80 and Highway 61 corridors. Same warrantless tracking, a different corporate vendor, and not counted in the Flock figures on this page.
And it doesn’t stop at the big five
The Quad Cities region stretches across dozens of towns that share the same highways, the same police networks, and the same vendors. Many of these communities likely already run Flock cameras or soon will. We just haven’t obtained their public records yet.
Flock Cameras in the Quad Cities Frequently Asked Questions
Which Quad Cities have Flock cameras?
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How much do the Quad Cities spend on Flock Safety?
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How many Flock cameras are in the Quad Cities?
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We have the power to take these cameras down.
Mass surveillance relies on our silence. If we speak up, we can reclaim our communities, protect our civil liberties, and redirect hundreds of thousands of local tax dollars back toward things that actually help our neighborhoods.