Suburban ne’er-do-wells, beware — South Barrington officials are set to increase the village’s already-hefty arsenal of crime-fighting automated license plate readers.
The village board on Thursday could vote to acquire another camera designed to read and record license plates and other automobile information.
The village began installing plate readers in neighborhoods in 2020, Village Administrator Bob Palmer said. About 50 are active in town.
The cameras passively scan passing vehicles and record images. The system alerts police when a car suspected of being used in a crime passes a camera, based on manufacturer, model, color, distinguishing features or marks and license plates. Information about cars without plates can be used, too.
The village’s cameras have come from Atlanta-based Flock Group, and the new one would, too. The lease for the new camera, if approved, will cost the village $2,500 annually, officials said.
A new report highlights which states are seeing the most car thefts. Illinois finished fifth on the list with a 35% increase from the previous year, marking the largest year over year increase of any state.
The report by National Insurance Crime Bureau looks into the number of car thefts per registered car owner in each state.
“Law enforcement agencies and communities across the United States continue to be plagued by record and near-record levels of vehicular crime as monthly theft totals nationwide consistently exceeded 75,000 in 2022,” the report said. “According to new analysis conducted by the National Insurance Crime Bureau … more than 1 million vehicles were stolen last year, marking a 7% increase over 2021.”
The report said California and Texas had the most reported stolen vehicles in 2022, but Illinois had “the largest increase of any top 10 state with thefts increasing by an estimated 35% between 2021 and 2022.”
Analysis of NICB data by CarVertical, a car consumer website, shows Illinois had nine vehicle thefts per 1,000 registered vehicles, fifth highest rate in the country.
Andrew Perkins, regional vice president of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, had previously said crime can impact how much Illinoisans pay for insurance.
“Crime would factor into it. You mentioned carjacking, and sure, that is one of many factors that goes into it,” Perkins said in February. “It’s all about the percentage of carjackings and the percentage of burglaries.”
A 2022 report by Wirepoints showed that the amount of carjacking incidents has increased year by year.
The real winners in Tuesday’s 220 Board of Education elections outcome.
In a contentious race that hit upon many of the culture war issues being debated across the country and drew the attention of national conservative groups and the state Democratic party, it was the candidate preaching unity who claimed the most votes Tuesday.
With provisional and late-arriving mail ballots left to be counted, Diana L. Clopton was the top vote-getter in the race for three seats on the Barrington Area Community Unit District 220 board, according to unofficial results.
Clopton received 4,100 votes, and incumbents Barry Altshuler and Leah Collister-Lazzari were in second and third, with 4,085 and 4,057 votes, respectively.
The race renewed heated debates in District 220 over COVID-19 mitigations and the placement of the controversial memoir “Gender Queer” on the shelves of the Barrington High School library.
The slate of Baldassano, Munson and Sheriff received support from the conservative 1776 Project PAC, which touts its opposition to critical race theory and anti-racism, and an endorsement from the national organization Moms for Liberty.
On the other side, the Democratic Party of Illinois — boosted by a $500,000 donation from Gov. J.B. Pritzker — supported Altshuler and Collister-Lazzari while accusing Baldassano, Munson and Sheriff of “pursuing an extremist agenda.”
Baldassano said Wednesday it was unfortunate that the campaign became swept up in the culture wars. She said she would have preferred the focus stay on students and their learning.
Barry Altshuler had his best “Resting Bitch Face” on display yesterday as he picketed with the other ‘Progressive’ candidates in downtown Barrington yesterday. Altshuler and Collister-Lazzari have continuously blocked from their Facebook campaign pages any person who asked tough questions about their record.
Yesterday, prior to the Progressive Picket, Altshuler deleted dozens of comments from the one post left on his page with comments that disagree with or question his actions in his 4 years in office.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Altshuler and Collister-Lazzari since they’ve been on the District 220 Board of Education, it is they have no tolerance for differing views. Their opinions are always unwavering, no matter what experts in their fields opine, and that’s just wrong…
State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, D-Naperville, is the chief sponsor of a bill that would allow the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office to to deny grant funding to public and school libraries that ban books.
The Illinois House has approved a measure sponsored by state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, of Naperville, that would allow the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office to deny grant funding to public and school libraries if they ban books or fail to devise policies against removing titles from their stacks.
The 69-39 party-line vote in the Democratic-led House reflected the partisan divide on the book-banning issue both in the state and nationally. The bill is now being considered by the Senate.
Illinois has not seen as many cases of book bans or attempted bans as states that lean more Republican, according to some research. But according to the secretary of state’s office, citing figures from the Chicago-based American Library Association, there were 67 attempts to ban books in Illinois in 2022, up from 41 the year before.
Democrats say book bans often discriminate against the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups, while Republicans have argued that some titles need to be out of the reach of children if they contain pornography or obscene imagery.
Republican state Rep. Martin McLaughlin called the bill “a complete go-around and end-around on the local control and authority” of elected library boards.
“I think it’s (a) very blatant attempt to strong-arm our local communities and how they want to direct their libraries to operate and function,” said McLaughlin, of Barrington Hills. “I don’t understand why we have local elections anymore if a bill like this passes.”
Given how crime has dominated the news, including the race for Chicago mayor, you might feel like celebrating the rise of automated license plate readers, an increasingly popular security tool that can help deter wrongdoing and track down criminals.
These compact devices use high-resolution cameras to record vehicles, including those traveling near crime scenes. The state has rolled out the cameras along its busiest highways, with our support, in part to identify suspects in hard-to-solve expressway shootings. There are far more of these cameras in Chicago than many people realize and they can snag fleeing wrongdoers several miles away from where they committed their crimes.
An increasing number of suburbs (including Barrington, Barrington Hills and South Barrington), are installing vehicle-scanning equipment as well. One of the leading providers, surveillance company
Given how crime has dominated the news, including the race for Chicago mayor, you might feel like celebrating the rise of automated license plate readers, an increasingly popular security tool that can help deter wrongdoing and track down criminals.
These compact devices use high-resolution cameras to record vehicles, including those traveling near crime scenes. The state has rolled out the cameras along its busiest highways, with our support, in part to identify suspects in hard-to-solve expressway shootings. There are far more of these cameras in Chicago than many people realize and they can snag fleeing wrongdoers several miles away from where they committed their crimes.
An increasing number of suburbs (including Barrington, Barrington Hills and South Barrington), are installing vehicle-scanning equipment as well. One of the leading providers, surveillance company Flock Safety, says its customers include neighborhoods, businesses and law enforcement in 2,000-plus cities — and counting.
License plate readers evidently work as advertised. Last year, when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill expanding their use on state highways beyond the Chicago area, Director Brendan Kelly of the Illinois State Police gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up: “Automated license plate readers play a growing, critical role in ISP investigations and arrests in the Chicagoland area,” Kelly said. “ISP now routinely uses this technology to track down expressway shootings and carjacking suspects, so the expansion of this technology across Illinois expands our ability to protect our interstates and bring violent criminals to justice.”
We are 100% in favor of bringing violent criminals to justice, and, as everyone knows, many crimes involve the use of vehicles. It’s easy to imagine how collecting images and data from license plates could provide unbiased, objective evidence in a way that hasn’t been possible up to now. These gadgets can help rescue kidnapped children, recover stolen cars and bust the gangs stealing catalytic converters, a costly auto part in high demand from scrap dealers.
But it’s also easy to see how the devices could be abused.
Make sure you smile when driving through Barrington.
Barrington village board members this week voted in favor of installing license plate reading cameras at 12 locations in town.
Trustees at Monday’s meeting, without discussion, agreed to sign a two-year, $70,250 contract with Atlanta-based Flock Group Inc. for the cameras, which are solar-powered, motion-activated and work in all weather conditions.
The cameras will take snapshots of passing vehicles to capture their make and model, license plate information and anyunusual or unique features.
The Barrington Hills Park District will be hosting a special meeting tonight with the Cook County Forest Preserve District to discuss the Master Plan for the Horizon Farm property. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM at the Riding Center located at 361 Bateman Rd, and will also be available for participation via Webex remotely.
The meeting agenda for the Forest Preserve District portion of the discussion includes:
Open trails
Ongoing improvements
Then, the 2023 Horizon Farm master planning priorities follows including:
Track
Barn 11
Other amenities (parking lots, comfort stations, signage, etc.)
Maintenance of future Horizon trail system
Spring Creek trail system
Conspicuously absent from the agenda are topics such as hiking and walking, bicycling, cross-country skiing and birding.
After this portion of the meeting, Park District Commissioners will vote on the proposed (and clearly confidential), “Combined Budget & Appropriations Ordinance 2-08-2023-01.”
A copy of the agenda can be viewed here, and instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found here.
The Barrington Hills Park District will hold a public hearing this evening at 6:45 PM regarding their, “Combined Budget & Appropriations Ordinance 02-08-2023-01.” As has been the case in previous annual hearings of this type, no, “Budget & Appropriations,” documentation has been provided by the District for taxpayers to review and comment on prior to the hearing.
Since it’s likely some members of the Riding Club and Trainers played a significant role in the drafting of the ordinance, they’ll have copies, and some might even share with those requesting a one (for a nominal fee, of course).
To view what little the District has posted in advance of the hearing, click here.
Barrington officials are expected to decide next month whether to purchase license plate-reading cameras like this one and install them at 12 locations in town. (Courtesy of Flock Safety)
Barrington police soon could have an additional tool at their disposal to help catch suspected criminals.
The village board is expected to vote Feb. 13 on a plan to install license plate reading cameras at 12 locations in town, where they would take snapshots of passing vehicles to capture their make and model, license plate information and any unusual or unique features.
Under the proposal, Barrington would sign a two-year, $70,250 contract with Atlanta-based Flock Group Inc. for the cameras, which are solar-powered, motion-activated and work in all weather conditions.
Police Chief David Dorn said the system would read the plate and, if the vehicle has been reported stolen or there is a warrant associated with it, a real-time text would be sent to a watch commander.
The Flock cameras also would be linked to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center federal and state hotlists, which are updated at least every 24 hours.
Suburban ne’er-do-wells, beware — South Barrington officials are set to increase the village’s already-hefty arsenal of crime-fighting automated license plate readers.
