Most of these searches were not run by anyone in Rock Island. They did not have to be.
Flock’s network lets an agency anywhere run one search across thousands of connected camera networks at once. Every time Rock Island’s cameras were included, the search landed in the city’s log.
Every Flock search is logged: the agency, the time, how many camera networks it reached, how far back it looked, and whether a case number was entered. That log is a public record.
We asked Rock Island for it. The city released its network audit, the record of every search by any agency that reached Rock Island’s cameras, for January 2025 through July 2026 and September 2026. August 2026 was not included. The department redacted user names, license plates and the stated reasons.
So these records show who searched, when, and how widely. They do not show why, which car, or whether a search found anything. Where a reason appears on this page, it comes from Rock Island’s own search audit or from another city’s records, and we say which.
The records, in plain terms
We will provide the full records, unaltered, to any resident, council member, or reporter who asks. Email [email protected].
One plate, read on a Rock Island street, can be pulled up by police two thousand miles away before you reach the next light. Here is the path, and where it goes dark.
A camera reads your plate
Rock Island’s 22 cameras photograph every plate that passes, logging where you were and when.
Flock pools it nationwide
The read joins Flock’s national network, where any connected agency can find it in one search across thousands of camera networks at once.
State and federal agencies pull it
4,857 agencies in 46 states have reached in: state police, sheriffs, fusion centers, HIDTA drug task forces, and U.S. Border Patrol.
Then we lose sight of it
Reasons are redacted, most searches carry no case number, and the audits the city’s own policy promises have never appeared. Where your plate goes next, and why, is hidden from the people it belongs to.
HIDTA stands for High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, a federal program that pools local police data into regional intelligence centers. Three HIDTA task forces, and two Justice Department funded intelligence networks, searched Rock Island’s cameras.
9,032,603
searches reached Rock Island’s cameras
65%
came from agencies outside Illinois
4,857
agencies searched them; only 477 are in Illinois
46 + D.C.
states those agencies came from, plus federal agencies
Hover or tap a bar for the month’s numbers. Each month’s file is missing a few hours at month’s end, so every figure is a floor.
| Month | All searches | Outside Illinois | Share |
|---|
| Agency | Searches |
|---|---|
| Houston, Texas PD | 278,904 |
| Louisville Metro, Kentucky PD | 142,523 |
| Indianapolis Metro PD | 88,967 |
| Hillsborough County, Florida Sheriff | 80,450 |
| Dallas, Texas PD | 77,016 |
| Lake County, Indiana Sheriff | 67,694 |
| California Highway Patrol | 65,225 |
| Texas Department of Public Safety | 63,392 |
| Kansas Highway Patrol | 52,465 |
| Indiana State Police | 48,631 |
January 2025 to September 2026. Houston PD also ran 3,979 “convoy” searches in 2025, which look for cars traveling together with a target car.
| Agency | Searches |
|---|---|
| Davenport PD | 19,497 |
| Moline PD | 18,862 |
| East Moline PD | 12,766 |
| Bettendorf PD | 7,318 |
| Rock Island County Sheriff | 6,685 |
| Rock Island PD itself | 18,528 |
Davenport is the one agency outside Illinois still searching Rock Island’s cameras in September 2026.
Between May 9 and June 13, 2025, U.S. Border Patrol ran 469 searches that reached Rock Island’s cameras. Only 3% carried a case number. About half asked for four weeks of history or more, one asked for 407 days, and two were “convoy” searches.
On August 25, 2025, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias found that Flock had violated 625 ILCS 5/2-130 by giving U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol’s parent agency, access to Illinois data. That law bars sharing plate data for immigration enforcement and requires a written declaration from any out-of-state agency before Illinois data is shared.
Border Patrol was not alone. Thirteen agencies that Flock itself labels “[Federal]” searched Rock Island’s cameras.
| Federal agency | Searches | When |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Postal Inspection Service | 27,407 | Apr to Dec 2025 |
| Indiana HIDTA drug task force | 697 | Jan to Jun 2025 |
| ATF, Louisville | 512 | Jan to May 2025 |
| U.S. Border Patrol | 469 | May 9 to Jun 13, 2025 |
| Wright-Patterson Air Force Base | 144 | Jan to Dec 2025 |
| Ohio HIDTA drug task force | 117 | Jan to Aug 2025 |
| GSA Office of Inspector General | 57 | Feb to Mar 2025 |
| Midwest HIDTA drug task force | 49 | Aug 2025; Apr to Jun 2026 |
| Five others, including the National Park Service and a VA police force | 188 | 2025 |
Fusion and intelligence centers
Missouri’s state fusion center, which shares information with the Department of Homeland Security, began searching Rock Island’s cameras on August 27, 2025, two days after the state’s finding, and ran 3,109 searches through July 2026. The New York State Crime Analysis Center Network ran 17,825. MOCIC, a Justice Department funded intelligence network, ran 9,787.
The Texas abortion search reached Rock Island too
East Moline’s records show a search by the Johnson County, Texas Sheriff’s Office on May 9, 2025 at 1:49:15 PM, across 6,809 networks, with the reason “had an abortion, search for female.” Rock Island’s log shows a search by the same office, at the same second, across the same 6,809 networks. Read about that search.
If anyone tells you Rock Island turned off nationwide sharing, the right question is: which time?
August 25 to December 18, 2025
After the state’s finding, out-of-state searches kept coming.
About 988,000 more searches from outside Illinois reached Rock Island’s cameras in the four months after the Secretary of State’s announcement. On December 18 they stopped, for two weeks.
January 1 to April 1, 2026
Then 125 out-of-state agencies came back.
Starting January 1, agencies in 27 states ran about 149,000 searches, led by Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky and Hillsborough County, Florida. Missouri’s fusion center was among them.
April 6, 2026, about 9:20 PM
The whole country was back in.
The next day about 1,100 out-of-state agencies reached Rock Island’s cameras. Over the next 15 weeks, 3,243 agencies in 40 states ran 1.25 million searches, nearly every one sweeping more than 5,000 networks at once. In the same weeks, Rock Island’s own officers ran 124 searches of about 6,200 networks each; 113 had no case number.
Texas, April to July 2026
363 Texas law enforcement agencies ran about 233,000 searches.
Led by the Texas Department of Public Safety (46,748), Houston PD (35,854) and Dallas PD (23,353). Illinois law bars sharing plate data to investigate or enforce laws that restrict reproductive health care. Texas bans abortion. These logs do not show why any Texas agency searched. They show that 363 of them could.
July 20, 2026, about 1 PM
Nationwide access ended. That was the day we filed our records request.
Since then, the only agency outside Illinois still searching Rock Island’s cameras is the Davenport Police Department.
Flock is sold on finding missing children and recovering stolen cars. Rock Island’s own search audit lists a reason for each of its officers’ searches. Here is what they actually searched for, January to June 2026, across 4,538 searches.
Offense categories are what officers picked from a dropdown; keyboard mashing is free text they typed, not a category. 15 smaller categories each under 5%. Shares are of 4,538 searches.
Officers typed pure gibberish almost as often as they searched for a missing person.
Missing-person searches were 0.9% of the total; keyboard mashing like asdf, jvjv and test was 0.7%. Searches the department’s own policy forbids, for traffic enforcement, ran more than thirteen times higher. A system sold to find missing children is used, mostly, for everything else.
The police department’s license plate reader policy, FP 37.1, took effect February 28, 2023. On the left is what it says, word for word. On the right is what Rock Island’s own search audit shows for January to June and September 2026.
The policy
“The ALPR system is not intended and shall not be used to enforce speed or traffic violations.”
The logs
582 searches, 11% of the department’s total, were for traffic infractions. They include a “speed” search for Ford sedans with a partial plate across hundreds of networks, a “CHILD BELT” search pulling 30 days of history across 6,204 networks, and searches for “no insurance” and expired plates.
The policy
“All users will be required to have individual credentials for access and use of the systems and data, which has the ability to be fully audited.”
The logs
The single busiest user is a shared dispatch login, with 802 searches, one in six of the total. That includes 51 of the department’s 65 welfare-check searches. None of them can be traced to a person.
The policy
“Every ALPR detection browsing inquiry shall be documented with the associated Rock Island Police Department incident report number or otherwise a reason for the inquiry.”
The logs
87% of searches from January to June had no case number. Dozens of the reasons officers did type were keyboard mashing: asdf, jvjv, kjbn. One search of a real plate across 1,100 networks gave its reason as test.
The policy
Data may go to another agency only if it makes a request, the agency, the person and the purpose are “documented ... and retained on file,” and “a supervisor must approve the request.”
The logs
About 9 million searches by other agencies reached Rock Island’s cameras. The policy requires a documented request and a supervisor’s approval before any of that sharing. None of that paperwork is in the records.
The policy
“The Department will conduct random audit samplings of the ALPR system utilization to verify proper use in accordance with the above authorized uses.” Evaluations of the system are to be shared with “interested community members.”
The logs
The policy promises random audits and says evaluations will be shared with interested community members. We are interested community members. We have seen none.
The policy was written in February 2023. It says nothing about Illinois’s limits on sharing with out-of-state agencies, immigration enforcement or reproductive health care.
22
cameras: 21 fixed, 1 portable
$58,500
a year
$275,000
five-year contract, signed December 31, 2023
In February 2023 the police chief asked to buy 21 Flock cameras with federal American Rescue Plan Act money, as a sole-source purchase with no competitive bidding. Ten months later, on December 31, 2023, he signed a five-year agreement at $55,000 a year. It renews automatically for another two years unless the city gives notice. In February 2025 the city added a portable camera for $3,500 a year.
Nationwide lookup is written into the package. The order form lists Nationwide Network (LP Lookup Only) as an included feature.
The city is also piloting Flock’s Raven audio sensors, and its September 2026 sharing list gives 37 agencies access to audio detection.
The way out is already in the contract
“Customer shall have the right to terminate this Agreement for non appropriation with thirty (30) days written notice without penalty or other cost.”
Section 11.16. The council adopts Rock Island’s budget every December. If it does not fund Flock, the city can end the contract on 30 days’ notice and owe nothing more.
Camera locations in the records
9 of 21 fixed cameras. The rest were not in the records we received.
Which time?
Out-of-state searches stopped on December 18, 2025. On January 1, out-of-state agencies started searching again, 125 of them by April. On April 6, 2026, the whole country was back in, and 1.25 million searches arrived before access ended on July 20, the day we filed our records request.
It wasn’t for most of the last two years, and it still isn’t.
Even in the quiet months, January to April 2026, 125 agencies in 27 states kept searching. In September 2026, Davenport police were still searching Rock Island’s cameras.
The city’s own contract and policy say they are.
In the contract, Rock Island promises to use Flock only in compliance with “all applicable laws and regulations, including but not limited to any laws relating to the recording or sharing of data, video, photo, or audio content.” Its policy requires a documented request and a supervisor’s approval before data goes to another agency.
The policy bans traffic enforcement and shared logins. The logs show both.
582 traffic searches, 802 searches on a shared login, and 87% of searches without a case number. A policy nobody follows is not oversight, and the random audits it promises have never surfaced.
It isn’t. It costs $55,000 every year through 2028.
And the contract lets the council stop paying. Under its non-appropriation clause, the city can end it on 30 days’ notice, without penalty.
Do not fund Flock in the next budget, end the contract, and do not replace it with another vendor. As the national ACLU put it: “Switching to another provider won't necessarily improve anything.”
That happens when enough residents tell the council they know what is in these logs. There are two ways to be heard.
Step 1
Ask three questions: Did you know agencies in 46 states, including U.S. Border Patrol, were searching our cameras? Who turned nationwide access back on in April 2026? Will you vote to leave Flock out of the next budget?
The mayor and every alderman’s email is below. Not sure of your ward? Find your alderman.
Step 2
Standing up in a public meeting is not a small thing to ask, and that is exactly why it carries weight. You do not need to be on the agenda to be heard.
Council meets the 2nd and 4th Mondays at 5:45 PM at City Hall, 1528 3rd Avenue. Sign up to speak at least five minutes before the meeting starts.
Rock Island mayor and city council
One alderman represents each ward. Contacts are from the city’s official website. Find your ward.
Neighbors are already pulling out
In September 2026 the Moline Police Department paused its Flock program and began deactivating all nine of its cameras. On August 31, 2026 the Henry County Sheriff's Office ended its Flock contract, and Galva did the same a week later. No crisis followed.
Tell the Rock Island City Council: leave Flock out of the budget, and do not replace it.
The more residents who speak up, the harder it is for the council to look away.
The network audit. Rock Island Police Department Flock Safety network audit, January 2025 to July 2026 and September 2026, obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. User names, plates and reasons redacted by the department. Agency states are taken from Flock’s own agency names; agencies Flock labels “[Federal]” are counted as federal.
The search audit. Rock Island Police Department Flock Safety search audit, January to June and September 2026, obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
The contract and policy. Chief’s memorandum 23-017 (February 17, 2023), Flock order forms and agreements (2023 and December 31, 2023), invoices (2023 to 2025), and Rock Island Police Department policy FP 37.1 (February 28, 2023), released by the City of Rock Island in January 2026.
The sharing list. Rock Island Police Department Flock sharing settings, September 2026, obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
The state audit. Illinois Secretary of State, August 25, 2025; Capitol News Illinois, August 27, 2025.
The Johnson County search. East Moline Police Department Flock network audit, May 2025, obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act; see our East Moline page for the reporting on that search.
Moline, Henry County and Galva. Cited in full on our East Moline page and at gettheflockoutqc.com/facts.
Population. U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census: Rock Island, 37,108.
Corrections. This page is compiled in good faith from public records and published reporting. If any figure here is wrong, email [email protected] and we will correct it in public and say what changed. We will also provide the complete records, unaltered, to anyone who asks.
