Harvey, Illinois police expand Flock surveillance with drones as company announces new data safeguards

Event: August 13, 2026 · First reported: August 14, 2026 · 2 sources

Harvey, Illinois police announced an expansion of their surveillance systems to include Flock Safety drones, license plate readers, and a camera network feeding the department's real-time crime center. Police Chief Dale Mitchell said the tools are meant to prevent crime and speed emergency response, and pledged legal and ethical use. The expansion comes as Flock Safety faces scrutiny over misuse of its data by officers, with CEO Garrett Langley publicly apologizing and announcing new controls, and after some agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, ended their Flock contracts.

Why this matters

Harvey's expansion illustrates how ALPR and drone deployments continue at the local level while state-level rules remain unsettled, leaving departmental policy and vendor-designed controls as the main checks on how the data is used.

Key facts

Harvey Police are adding Flock Safety drones, license plate readers, and cameras tied to the department's real-time crime center.
Flock CEO Garrett Langley apologized on Thursday for instances of law enforcement misuse and said the company will flag abnormal search behavior, require case numbers for searches, and cut data retention from 30 days to seven.
The Institute for Justice, a civil liberties law firm, says it has identified more than 100 incidents of ALPR abuse, including stalking and wrongful stops.
Last month a Milwaukee police officer pleaded guilty to misconduct over nearly 200 unauthorized searches, including alleged attempts to track an ex-partner.
ACLU of Illinois spokesman Ed Yohnka said Flock has at times overstated the technology's public safety benefits and called for state regulation; Illinois House Bill 5151, introduced earlier this year, has not yet been assigned to a committee.

Sources

This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.

Harvey, Illinois adding Flock Safety drones amid growing concerns over surveillance technology and police misuse of data (cbsnews.com, August 14, 2026)
Harvey, Illinois expands police surveillance network with Flock camera technology as privacy concerns persist (ABC7 Chicago, August 13, 2026)

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About this record

BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.

Updated August 17, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.