A bit of missing context - the officer with the access to the FLOCK system shared his account details with many other officers including the DEA agent because he thought that’s just what was done since he was the only one with an account.
Also on this:
State legislation prohibits Illinois license plate reader data from being used for immigration enforcement purposes.
Why?! Why is immigration enforcement being stifled so much? Imagine if there was a police database that could help find murderers whenever they drove their car in public and legislators said “no you’re not allowed to use that to help find wanted murderers”. It makes no sense.
I think you're mistaking actually enforcing the law as being "lawless and authoritarian".
I'm not so "up in arms" about anything, just questioning why the authorities are handicapped on what they can use one of their systems for. Sure, the violation of the law is bad - but the law itself seems ridiculous. The only people it benefits are literally criminals.