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

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 undo it.

伊利诺伊州的一所学院试图取消其与 Flock 的合同，但遭到了拒绝。由于 Flock 拒绝拆除其摄像头，埃尔金社区学院（Elgin Community College）便将它们遮盖了起来，而该公司却偷偷潜回并将遮盖物移除。

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 both law enforcement and the company’s employees were abusing access to the data.

2025 年 4 月，埃尔金社区学院安装了六台 Flock 安全摄像头，旨在“加强学生的安保工作”。但到了同年 9 月，校方开始担心 Flock 与海关及边境保卫局共享数据，担心摄像头画面未得到妥善保护，并怀疑执法部门和该公司员工都在滥用这些数据访问权限。

So in October of 2025, Elgin Community College requested Flock to remove its cameras. According to Elgin’s President Peggy Heinrich, Flock rejected the request, saying it had not violated its contract. According to the Chicago 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.

因此，在 2025 年 10 月，埃尔金社区学院要求 Flock 拆除其摄像头。据埃尔金学院校长佩吉·海因里希（Peggy Heinrich）称，Flock 拒绝了这一请求，声称其并未违反合同。据《芝加哥太阳时报》报道，校方官员在 12 月再次联系了该公司，提出愿意支付剩余五个月的合同费用，并再次要求拆除摄像头，但对方保持沉默。

That’s when things took a strange and somewhat sinister turn. According to the Sun-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.

就在那时，事情变得有些奇怪且令人不安。据《太阳时报》报道：海因里希表示，埃尔金社区学院的工作人员开始用黑色垃圾袋和扎带遮盖摄像头，以防止它们拍摄画面。但乘坐一辆无标志车辆的工作人员（海因里希推测属于 Flock）反复将遮盖物拆除。

“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.

“我们陷入了一种拉锯战，我们遮盖住，等他们来维护时又会拆掉，”海因里希说，“然后我们再遮盖，他们再拆除。”这种情况一直持续到今年 4 月，当时学院的合同到期，Flock 才拆除了这些摄像头。