A college in Illinois tried to cancel its Flock contact and it refused

Flock refused to take its cameras down so Elgin Community College covered them. The company snuck back to undue it.

Terrence O'Brien

Oct 11, 2026, 8:06 PM UTC

BOULDER, CO - MARCH 5:A Flock Safety license plate recognition camera is seen near the intersection of Marine Street and Arapahoe Avenue in Boulder on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Photo by Matthew Jonas/MediaNews Group/Boulder Daily Camera via Getty Images)

MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Terrence O'Brien

is the Verge’s weekend editor. He’s covered the tech industry for over 18 years and knows a thing or two about synths.

In April of 2025, Elgin Community College had six Flock safety cameras installed to “enhance the safety and security of students.” But by September of that year, the school’s administration grew concerned that Flock was sharing data with Customs and Border Patrol, that camera feeds were not properly secured, and that bothlaw enforcementand the company’s employees wereabusing accessto the data.

So in October of 2025, Elgin Community College requested Flock toremove its cameras. According to Elgin’s President Peggy Heinrich, Flock rejected the request, saying it had not violated its contract. According to theChicago Sun-Times, school officials reached out again in December, offered to pay for the remaining five months of the contract, and still requested that the cameras be removed. They were met with silence.

That’s when things took a strange and somewhat sinister turn.According to theSun-Times:

Heinrich said Elgin Community College staff began to cover the cameras using black trash bags and zip ties so that they would not be able to capture footage. But workers in an unmarked vehicle, which Heinrich assumed belonged to Flock, repeatedly removed the coverings.
“We were kind of in a back and forth for a bit where we’d cover, and then when they’d come to service, they’d remove,” Heinrich said. “Then we’d cover and then they’d remove.”

This continued until April of this year when the college’s contract expired, and Flock removed the cameras.

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