An Illinois college tried to cancel its surveillance contract. The vendor said no.
Elgin Community College installed six Flock Safety license-plate cameras in April 2025, pitched as a way to boost student safety. By September, administrators had soured on the deal. They worried Flock was sharing camera data with Customs and Border Protection, that the feeds weren't properly secured, and that both police and Flock's own employees could access footage without enough oversight. In October, the college asked Flock to remove the cameras. Flock refused, telling college president Peggy Heinrich that nothing in the contract obligated it to do so.
The standoff is a reminder of how little leverage a customer has once a surveillance vendor is wired into local infrastructure. A college that decided a camera network wasn't worth the privacy risk found the exit door was locked from the vendor's side, not its own.
A security feature the customer can't switch off isn't security. It's a lease you can't break.