Secretary of state's office says law enforcement using license plate reader data illegally
A state law last year restricted the sale, sharing and access of its license plate reader data by law enforcement when it interferes with someone's abortion rights, particularly if the person comes to Illinois from out of state.
While license plate readers can be used by law enforcement to investigate violent felonies and missing person cases, the state law also prohibits use of the data for matters including to aid in the detention or investigation of a person based on their immigration status.
According to the secretary of state's office, Texas law enforcement authorities in May performed a nationwide search of more than 83,000 license plate reader cameras — which can be found on squad cars, street lights and along highways — to find a woman they said had a self-administered abortion. Almost all abortions are illegal in Texas while Illinois has numerous protections for women seeking to undergo the procedure.
The Texas authorities managed 'to find a way to circumvent the law and collect Illinois license plate data illegally,' Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said during a news conference Thursday.
'This demonstrates a broader, problematic trend of other states leveraging this emerging technology, extending their reach beyond their jurisdictions to surveil and hunt down law-abiding individuals,' Giannoulias said.
While abortion is clearly a partisan issue, Giannoulias denied politics were at play in his decision to call for an audit.
'This is about protecting personal data,' the Chicago Democrat said. 'This is not about Democrat versus Republican. This is about protecting this information, and it's about abiding by Illinois law.'
The search from Texas authorities included cameras in Mount Prospect, the secretary of state's office said. The northwest suburb's Police Department's license plate reader settings 'provided a gateway into Illinois' system operated by (Flock Safety, the service that operates the license plate reader network in question) for an unauthorized use, despite the Texas police stating that the reason for the search was related to abortion care.'
In addition, between Jan. 14 and April 30, there were 262 searches for immigration-related matters in Mount Prospect alone, the secretary of state's office said.
Neither officials from the Mount Prospect Police Department nor the Johnson County, Texas, sheriff's office, which investigated the case involving the woman, were immediately available for comment Thursday.
The secretary of state's office said it instructed Flock Safety to immediately shut off access for out-of-state authorities to use the system illegally. As of Wednesday, Giannoulias said, the service had 'identified 46 individual out-of-state agencies' who violated the law, and their access has been shut off.
Giannoulias' office said in a statement it has also contacted the Illinois attorney general's office to investigate the matter 'and is establishing an audit system with additional safeguards to ensure any law enforcement entity using (a license plate reader system) in Illinois is adhering to the law.'
According to Sarah Garza Resnick, CEO of Personal PAC, an abortion rights group, law enforcement charged at least 210 pregnant people for 'conduct related to pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth' in the first year after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, leaving regulations of the procedure up to individual states. On Thursday, Resnick said 114 of these cases 'involved family-policing,' such as the woman in the Texas case. There's no indication the woman ended up seeking abortion care in Illinois.
'If this woman didn't want her family involved in her health care decision, she has every right to (keep) her privacy,' Resnick said. 'And despite what anti-abortion politicians want, she has every right to travel freely and across our country.'
Under the law, police agencies could jeopardize their access to Illinois license plate reader data if they use it to prosecute or enforce another state's laws pertaining to abortion care or for inquires about someone's immigration status. Violating the law could also jeopardize the agencies' well as their eligibility for federal and state grants.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Musk's primary threats pose danger for Republicans
Elon Musk is threatening to primary Republicans who voted for President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' posing a challenge for the president and his allies as they look to defy midterm headwinds. Musk vowed earlier this week that Republicans who supported Trump's megabill 'will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth' as the Tesla CEO has reignited his feud with Trump in recent days. Republicans see the comments as unhelpful, with some saying if the threats come to fruition, it could risk diverting resources away in an election environment that historically hasn't been kind to the president's party in power. 'One of the most destructive behaviors that we've had in cycles where we've been unsuccessful in Senate races … are those in which we have expended massive resources in intraparty warfare,' said one Republican consultant who's worked on Senate races. Ever since Musk ended his stint at the White House, the billionaire has been a vocal critic of Trump's major policy bill, taking particular issue with the projected trillions of dollars multiple analyses say will add to the deficit. The House narrowly passed the final version of the bill on Thursday, and Trump signed it Friday evening at a White House Fourth of July event. But Musk's frustrations reached a new point on Monday when he said he would back challengers to Republicans who supported Trump's agenda-setting legislation, while saying he would also look to protect Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a prominent opponent of the bill who has drawn Trump's ire. The Tesla CEO also suggested it was time for a new political party. 'It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country — the PORKY PIG PARTY!! Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,' he said on the social platform X, which he owns. Some lawmakers have sought to brush off Musk's threat. 'I'll take President Trump's endorsement over Elon's any day of the week, back home,' Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said in an interview with Just the News's Nicholas Ballasy regarding the potential primary challenge. Marshall said his Republican colleagues were 'ignoring' Musk. Trump, meanwhile, left the door open this week to deporting Musk, who was born in South Africa and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He also suggested Musk's advisory Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could be turned against the billionaire and his companies. 'I think what's going to happen is DOGE is going to look at Musk. And if DOGE looks at Musk, we're going to save a fortune,' Trump said while in Florida on Tuesday. 'I don't think he should be playing that game with me.' The White House and a representative for Musk did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Some Republicans expressed skepticism that Musk would actually follow through in launching primary challenges against GOP incumbents, while others didn't view the billionaire's remarks as an immediate threat. 'I think the president is much more popular with the base right now than Elon Musk, and I think our elected representatives are also more popular,' said Mark Jefferson, a former executive director for the Wisconsin GOP. 'I don't take the threat all that seriously, because how do you primary hundreds of people?' asked Georgia-based Republican consultant Brian Robinson. Unlike Musk, Trump has a history of trying to oust Republicans with whom he's been at odds, with varying degrees of success. And Trump's allies have already signaled this cycle they're not afraid to go after holdouts and members of the party they see as stymieing the president and his agenda. A pro-Trump super PAC has already been created with the goal of 'firing' Massie. 'Unless and until Musk can start lining up some A-team candidates or credible people or people in the same wing of the party, he's going nowhere,' said top GOP donor Eric Levine, who described Massie as 'fringe.' Other Republicans suggest it may not be long before Trump and Musk are back on good terms again. While it's too soon to say how serious Musk might be about his primary threats, the moves would be an unnecessary obstacle for the party. 'I hope that he doesn't, obviously, because I think that primary fights normally don't do anything but strengthen the opposition,' said longtime GOP donor Bill Bean. Bean acknowledged that Musk 'has a point' about the GOP legislation raising the deficit, but he also voiced concern that Musk's primary challenges against members of Congress could force Republicans to divert resources from areas where the party might not otherwise have been concerned. 'I think that his money would be much better spent instead of primarying conservative Republicans who maybe aren't 100 percent as conservative or 100 percent agree with him to go out and win elections in swing districts,' Bean said. 'I guarantee you, if we had a 30-seat majority in the House and a 12-seat majority in the Senate, the bill right now going through would be a lot closer to what he would like to see,' he added. Musk's remarks represent a noteworthy shift from just months ago, when he was considered one of Trump's biggest allies. His America PAC spent tens of millions of dollars alone supporting the president during the 2024 election, and he was a critical donor for Wisconsin Republicans earlier this year as they looked to narrow the spending gap against Democrats in the high-stakes state Supreme Court race. Even while Musk has opened up old wounds with Trump over Republicans' major policy bill, it hasn't stopped him from offering some praise for the president. He lauded the president last week over his handling of foreign affairs, writing Wednesday in a post on X: 'Credit where credit is due. @realDonaldTrump has successfully resolved several serious conflicts around the world.' Meanwhile, some Republicans have a warning for Musk, should he follow through on his threats. 'Musk is deeply hated among Democrats. For now, he maintains good standing among Republicans, but if he follows through, he will lose them as well and be a man without a country,' said Michigan-based GOP strategist Jason Cabel Roe in an email to The Hill. 'That will sabotage any political or business initiatives he's involved in.'
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Budget bill includes $10B payday for states that spent on border security
Tucked into the budget reconciliation bill is a Texas-sized golden nugget: $13.5 billion that could pay back what the state spent on border security during the Biden administration. The bill – which passed Congress on July 3 – doesn't mention Texas by name. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lobbied hard for the line item's inclusion, and the state's Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn fought for the reimbursement. "Under Operation Lone Star, Texas allocated more than $11 billion of Texas taxpayer money for border security, and earlier this year I requested Congress reimburse Texas for these costs in full," Abbott said in a May statement, after an initial version of the bill passed in the House of Representatives. The new "State Border Border Security Reinforcement Fund" earmarks $10 billion for grants to states that paid for border barriers or other security measures beginning Jan. 20, 2021 – President Joe Biden's inauguration day. Notably, during the Biden administration, no other state spent more than Texas on border security measures. Under Operation Lone Star, the state deployed thousands of Texas National Guard troops to the border, placed controversial buoy barriers in the Rio Grande and paid to bus more than 100,000 migrants to Democrat-led cities around the country. Abbott was one of Biden's leading critics on the border during a period when the Border Patrol was registering more than 2 million migrant encounters a year – many of them lawful asylum-seekers. The "reinforcement" provision "just says 'states can apply.' But what states incurred expenses? Texas and Arizona," said Adam Isacson, director of defense oversight for the Washington Office on Latin America. Early during the Biden administration, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, sought to build a makeshift border barrier out of old shipping containers. But legal challenges forced his administration to remove the barrier, and his Democratic successor, Gov. Katie Hobbs, had previously asked the Biden administration to reimburse the state for border security funding totaling $513 million. The budget reconciliation bill includes an additional $3.5 billion under a fund whose acronym spells BIDEN: "Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide." That money can be disbursed to states that aid the federal government in its immigration crackdown. In an emailed response to questions, Abbott Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris declined to say how much money Texas will apply for but told USA TODAY the governor "will continue to work closely with the Trump administration to secure the border. "
2 hours ago
Megabill negotiations show Vance is a key player in the Trump administration
Over the past six months, Vice President JD Vance has shown how much of a key player he has become in the Trump administration, serving as the president's most prominent advocate and advancing his agenda. The latest example came this week, when Vance helped push President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending bill through Congress. Vance held a series of meetings with conservative and moderate holdouts and Senate leadership last Saturday to help move the bill forward. A source with direct knowledge stated that Vance played a key role in talking with Senate holdouts throughout the bill before he ended up casting several tie-breaking votes as president of the Senate and move the spending bill along to the House. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who had been critical of the bill's cuts to Medicaid and SNAP -- the food assistance program -- met with Vance, where he thanked her for being a team player despite her concerns with the legislation, just before she voted for the bill. During the sprint to push the bill through, Vance was criticized for his social post around concerns of the bill's impact on Medicaid, writing that "the minutiae of the Medicaid policy—is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions." During all this, Vance was making phone calls to Trump and the two were updating each other on their talks with senators ahead of the bill's passage. The vice president attended Wednesday's meeting at the White House between Trump and several holdouts from the House as the president ramped up the pressure to vote for the bill. North Carolina GOP Rep. Greg Murphy, who had told reporters on Wednesday night that he was still undecided because of some of the health care provisions, said Thursday that he ultimately decided to support the package after speaking on the phone to Vance and the president. "I needed assurances," he said. A source close to Vance said that he continued to work the phones ahead of the floor vote on the rule, calling multiple House GOP holdouts to make the administration's case for them to support the bill. However, it's not just on the domestic policy front that Vance is having an impact. He has also been critical in supporting Trump's foreign policy. While Trump was weighing the decision to strike Iran's nuclear sites, Vance came to the president's defense after supporters like Tucker Carlson and those in the MAGA base were outspoken against the U.S. getting involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran. "He may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment. That decision ultimately belongs to the president," Vance wrote on X. "And of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy. But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue. And having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish American people's goals. Whatever he does, that is his focus." Vance's comments were a departure from his prior statements that the U.S. should not get entangled in foreign conflicts. A prime example is the vice president's opposition to the U.S. providing more aid to Ukraine. "I gotta be honest with you, I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another," Vance said in February 2022, amid an explosion of bipartisan support for the country following the aftermath of Russia's invasion. Most recently, Vance expressed concerns about the president's decision to strike the Houthis in Yemen in a Signal group chat with other top administration officials. "I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now," Vance wrote in the chat. "There's a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc." In the lead-up to the strikes, Trump was trying to engage the MAGA base with Vance to see what their reaction would be if he ordered the bombing. Prior to the strikes, Trump told reporters on Air Force One while flying back from the G7 summit in Canada that it was possible he could send Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Iranian negotiators. Vance's active role in moving Trump's agenda forward was always part of the plan. In November, following the election, a source close to the vice president told ABC News that Vance had been tasked to ensure that all of the priorities of the Trump administration move forward and would work on any of the issues Trump needed him to further, signaling that the vice president would not be assigned one specific issue to work on, but would be involved in several policy issues. It was also expected that Vance would be Trump's "eyes and ears" in the Senate to ensure that his agenda moves forward, the source also said. It's familiar territory for Vance, who was elected to the Senate in 2022. All this comes as Vance is viewed by some as the MAGA heir apparent to Trump ahead of the 2028 election. At the same time, he is working to raise as much money as possible for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms as chair of the Republican National Committee -- the first time a vice president has ever held the role. Joel Goldstein, a vice-presidential scholar and former professor at Saint Louis University Law School, told ABC News that Vance is working in a different timeline compared to his predecessors, as he will serve only one term as vice president under Trump. "Every vice presidency is different and one of the things that is unique about Vance's is that every other vice president, you know, with the possible exception of Harris, entered office with the expectation that the president was going to run for reelection," Goldstein said. "I think he's in a very unique position in that his first term as vice president is his last, and so his presidential ambitions, the time for reckoning comes up, you know, much quicker than is normally the case." Following his tie-breaking votes in the Senate, several Democrats who might be opponents in the 2028 presidential election attempted to make Vance the face of Trump's spending bill. In a post on X, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out Vance for casting the tie-breaking vote to allow the bill to move forward. "VP Vance has cast the deciding vote in the Senate to cut Medicaid, take away food assistance, blow up the deficit, and add tax breaks for the wealthiest," Buttigieg wrote. "This bill is unpopular because it is wrong," he continued. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom told Americans on X to "bookmark" this moment, writing that "JD Vance is the ultimate reason why 17 million Americans will lose their healthcare." In an interview with NBC News, Trump pointed to Vance and Secretary of State and interim national security adviser Marco Rubio as possible successors, and said, when asked, that he believes his MAGA movement can survive without him.
