A federal lawsuit accuses Illinois State Police and state officials of operating an unconstitutional “system of dragnet surveillance” through license plate-reading cameras that track motorist’s whereabouts.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the suit, filed last week by Cook County residents Stephanie Scholl and Frank Bednarz in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, names the ISP, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul as defendants.

The lawsuit “challenges the warrantless, suspicion-less, and entirely unreasonable” tracking as a violation of the Fourth and 14 amendments.

The cameras — known as automated license plate readers — are described by many in law enforcement as essential in their work, and they have been installed throughout the state over the past decade. These devices use software to scan the license plates of vehicles, recording the date, time, GPS coordinates and even pictures.

LPR cameras are in operation in and around the metro east – including on I-255 in Columbia and Route 3 in Waterloo. 

Information on drivers is being collected without a warrant or suspicion, this suit alleges.

The lawsuit seeks an order barring the state from operating its current LPR network and for no additional cameras to be installed.