DEA agent used Illinois detective's Flock login for 24 unauthorized immigration searches

On January 27-28, 2025, a Drug Enforcement Administration Group 22 task force agent, identified only by the initials "B.K." in internal communications, used Palos Heights, Illinois police detective Todd Hutchinson's personal login to the Flock automated license-plate-reader system to run 24 searches logged with "immigration violation" as the stated reason for investigation. Hutchinson, a DEA task force officer assigned to Group 22 since May 2023, was the only member of the group with Flock access and had shared his password so other agents could run narcotics-related searches; he told superiors he believed the access "would only be used for DEA/narcotics related investigations."

Illinois state law restricts license-plate-reader data to law-enforcement purposes unrelated to immigration status, making the 24 searches a direct violation of that restriction. A Palos Heights police department memo obtained via public-records request, along with internal group-chat screenshots, shows the agent later acknowledged the misuse to Hutchinson, writing that Hutchinson's Flock access had been revoked "because of my mistake." Palos Heights Police Chief Mike Yott confirmed the department found Hutchinson had "violated our security practices" by sharing his password, that his access was disciplined, and that the passwords were changed, while attributing the actual searches to the federal agent. The department has since disabled sharing its Flock data outside Illinois. Electronic Frontier Foundation director of investigations Dave Maass said the incident showed the department "was not acting responsibly with this data" until journalists exposed it.

This event is distinct from separately archived Flock-misuse incidents involving the Milwaukee Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department — different agency, department, and jurisdiction from this DEA/Palos Heights case.