Unwelcoming Evanston

Evanston is unwelcoming when their police violently lock out elderly Black folk in the middle of the night to gentrify the 5th ward.

Evanston is unwelcoming when Palestinians are surveilled and erased during a U.S.-backed genocide.

Evanston is unwelcoming when police use surveillance weapons against us and our neighbors in the service of empire.

Evanston is unwelcoming because it is a settler colonial project, built on stolen land. LAND BACK!

Who exactly is Evanston welcoming?

The Niles Coalition has studied how surveillance is creeping into our lives throughout the Chicagoland area, including Evanston. For details about what ALPR is please see the resources section down below.

Evanston is promoted as a “Welcoming City” yet it has been transforming into a surveillance state. To make our community safe for immigrants and other people criminalized by the state, we would do well to dismantle the systems in Evanston that contribute to criminalization.

For years Evanston police used “automatic license plate reader” (ALPR) cameras to help hunt down people seeking abortions1 and for their immigration status2. This is explicitly against Illinois state law3 and several Evanston ordinances.4 They’ve briefly had the Flock brand cameras taken down but have written into the FY2026 budget that they intend to replace them with new ones. To recap, here’s the timeline of events.

– TIMELINE –

December 2022 – Evanston police secretly installed these cameras without public notice. The initial contract for ALPR weapons was never approved by city council or by any other form of meaningful consent by the community. A contract was signed with Flock Safety for just 10 cents under the threshold where they would need city council’s approval. A few months later purchased additional cameras for another contract 4 dollars under that same threshold.

January 2023 – In Flock offered a 5-year contract renewal at an amount that finally did require a rubber stamp by council. In the January 8th, 2024 City Council meeting5, Evanston cop Ryan Glew promised that the data from Flock Safety automatic license plate reader cameras “…cannot be used for out of state investigations of women coming through town for exercise of reproductive rights.” or “…in investigation of immigration status as well.” Investigations show that it was happening regardless.

Councilmembers unanimously voted for this increased state surveillance knowing the risks.6

May 2025 – Independent investigators reveal the use of this unwarranted surveillance data in violation of state and local laws. This is exactly what activists have warned about when these cameras went up.

June 2025 – The Illinois Secretary of State intervenes. Giannoulias Cracks Down on Unlawful Use of License Plate Reader Data.

August 2025 – A second announcement by the Illinois Secretary of State: Giannoulias’ Audit Finds License Plate Reader Company in Violation of State Law. Evanston cancels the contract with the ALPR vendor and Flock Safety removes some cameras.

September 2025 – A third announcement by the Illinois Secretary of State: Giannoulias’ Audit Uncovers Forest Park Police Department Sharing License Plate Reader Data with Customs and Border Protection a Violation of State Law. This is an entirely different vendor than the one Evanston used. Meanwhile, Evanston Police speak about getting ALPRs in Evanston again.

September 15th – Mayor Biss lies about taking down the cameras to a crowd of people at an anti-ICE rally.

September 22 – Some cameras went back up.

September 23 – Evanston Now reports that Flock reinstalled the cameras without Evanstons knowledge or permission: Flock reinstalls cameras, city orders removal.

September 24 – Evanston Roundtable reports that not all the cameras were taken down in the first place and the camera are still rolling.

⚠️ No community alert was ever sent by Evanston during this crisis.

November 11 – The Finance and Budget Committee moves a whopping 6 million dollar 7-year contract renewal with notorious surveillance company Axon. It includes a whole suite of surveillance weapons like drones, mobile ALPRs, tasers, body cameras and a “real-time crime center” called FUSUS!

Takeaways:

This isn’t an issue with a particular vendor, this an inherent issue with policing and their surveillance weapons.

The Chief of Police Schenita Stewart along with supervisors knew our data was being shared all along. They conduct quarterly reviews of the data sharing audits.

While neighboring agencies have willingly provided public audit records from ALPR use, Evanston is resisting compliance to Illinois Freedom of Information Act law7 with the release of their surveillance use audits.8 There’s no transparency and no accountability.

We also saw the Evanston drone program funded by Homeland Security for “counter-terrorism efforts” used against people at rallies for Palestine9. This is a violation of another state law called the Freedom From Drone Surveillance Act (of which State Senator Daniel Biss was a sponsor).10 This indicates a pattern of recklessness indicative of policing that we’ve seen time and time again.

Evanston cannot be a Welcoming City AND a Surveillance City.

How many people have been and/or will be harmed by the years of our data that Evanston police quietly collected?

It’s time to BAN ALL SURVEILLANCE in Evanston and we can start first with ALPR!

Meanwhile our investigation continues…

*We are now offering a surveillance webinar for trusted community members. Please reach out to schedule one.

– More info –
– footnotes –
  1. “A Texas Cop Searched License Plate Cameras Nationwide for a Woman Who Got an Abortion.”, Cox, Joseph 404 Media, 29 May 2025 ↩︎
  2. “ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows.”,Koebler, Jason 404 Media, 27 May 2025 ↩︎
  3. 625 ILCS 5/2-130 User of Automated License Plate Readers; Prohibitions. 1 Jan. 2025 ↩︎
  4. City of Evanston Code of Ordinances. Municode Library. Ordinance No. 17-O-25 “Welcoming City Ordinance”, Ordinance 43-O-25, “Health Data Protection Ordinance” ↩︎
  5. City of Evanston. “Evanston City Council Meeting 1-8-2024”  – YouTube. 8 Jan. 2024, ↩︎
  6. FOIA Request #25-1744: ALPR Emails to Councilmembers ↩︎
  7. 5 ILCS 140/1 Freedom of Information Act ↩︎
  8. FOIA Requests #25-1578: Flock Safety ALPR Audits 2025 (Evanston Police Department) , #25-1704: ALPR Audit Reports Review by Chief of Police Schenita Stewart ↩︎
  9. FOIA Request #23-2812: Evanston Drone and Uav Acquisition, Policy, and Use ↩︎
  10. Illinois General Assembly . 725 ILCS 167/1. “Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act”, 1 Jan. 2014 ↩︎