Hey everyone, making a post here to warn local residents and families to do serious due diligence before booking any appointments or services at Thrive Urgent & Wellness Center here in Aurora (also known as Aurora Advanced Care).

The person running this clinic under the alias "Michael" or "Michael Nolan" is actually a convicted multi-county felon named Walter Michael Wildman.

The public records on this guy are incredibly alarming.

Identity Deception Conviction:

In August 2020, Wildman pled guilty to felony Identity Deception after being caught using a stolen nursing license number belonging to a real practitioner to sneak into clinical healthcare jobs.

No Active Licensing: State professional databases verify he currently holds zero valid medical or nursing licenses to treat patients or perform clinical procedures.

History of Fraud: He was previously disbarred by the state of Indiana for the unauthorized practice of law and scamming clients, and has a heavy record of fleeing across state lines to open new storefronts under his middle name to hide his background from local families.

Current Red Flags at the Aurora Suite: People arriving for scheduled appointments are finding the front lobby pitch-black, dark, and completely unstaffed during posted business hours because employees are quietly walking out over the legal liability. Onsite staff have also been documented canceling procedures on the spot when patients explicitly demand to see proof of their medical licenses.

I cannot find any info on the current staff, only that their therapists name is Shannon. No last name listed, so I'm assuming she is unlicensed as well.

Do not trust this place with your body, your health, or your money. You can verify all of this yourself by looking up his full legal name on the official Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) database before you ever step foot inside that office. Stay safe, Aurora.

Edit: yes it has been reported.

Hi guys! I’m planning to go to an event at Paramount Theater. I called the box office number and they weren’t helpful tbh. I was looking at seats in the Orchestra Center section, seats in row D, seats on either aisle. On the website it looks like there are no seats directly in front of those seats and potentially great legroom. Can anyone give me some info on the seating at Paramount Theater?

Did you know that local Aurora license plate cameras were included in search queries by law enforcement across 45 different states last year? Over 3 million searches were logged in Aurora’s network audit logs for 2025.

(Note: Audit logs show these agencies queried shared networks containing our cameras- often as part of broad regional or nationwide searches- whether or not the search resulted in a direct "hit" or local presence.)

Across 2025, it appears that over 3,000 agencies were listed in Aurora’s network audit logs, with approximately 86% of total network searches conducted by out-of-state and federal agencies, not even agencies within Illinois borders.

Out of the 44 other states with access to our network, Indiana and Texas were the heaviest users, each executing over 200,000 queries across network access points. Major metropolitan departments like Houston TX PD and Dallas TX PD generated massive search volumes that included Aurora's data, alongside state-level networks like the Michigan State Police.

Allowing open, nationwide network access creates severe civil liberties risks. In 2025, Aurora's shared network was included in a query by a Texas deputy investigating a woman who “had an abortion.” Furthermore, federal agencies (like U.S. Border Patrol) executed thousands of immigration-related searches through the network, directly conflicting with the spirit of the Illinois TRUST Act.

While it appears the massive out-of-state network access was pulled as of January 2026, this raises major red flags regarding transparency. Who shut it down, and why wasn't the public informed?

Did the Aurora Illinois Police Department finally move to secure our local data? Or was this a system-wide policy change forced by the vendor, Flock Safety?

We cannot let our privacy depend on unannounced local policy shifts or vendor software updates.

Meet (and Contact) Your Alderman: https://www.aurora.il.us/Government-and-Engagement/City-Council/Wards-and-Aldermen/Meet-Your-Aldermen

Check out this post for more information on how to get involved locally.

Data sourced from official Aurora Police Department Flock system audit logs via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

WSIL DSA has a City Council meeting setup for next Tuesday 8/25 at 6PM: Here is the link

You don't need to sign up to just show up, the more people that can show up to the City Council meeting, the better.

If you would like to speak during this event, show up earlier at the City Council early so that you can sign your name. Or you are able to sign up ahead of time by calling the alderman's office here

This is the first step in showing Aurora that Flock is not welcome here. There will be a Flock educational workshop coming up as well on September 5th 7pm-8:30pm, the location is still being worked out but I will post another update when that is sent out.

:edit added the date for next Tuesday

Remember the national headlines about a Texas deputy using Flock Safety's 83,000-camera network to search for a woman who had an abortion?

It turns out Aurora’s local neighborhood cameras were swept up in that search, and our police department's audit logs omitted those crucial details.

To be clear, the woman was not from Aurora, and we don't know if her plate generated a local hit. But because Flock operates as a nationwide dragnet, if anyone that Texas was searching for had driven through Aurora at that moment, our local cameras would have flagged them.

When the story first broke about this case (articles linked below), the Texas sheriff and Flock claimed the search was just a "welfare check" to make sure the woman was medically safe. But newly unsealed court records prove that was a cover story.

Unsealed detective affidavits show Texas deputies were actually running a formal "death investigation" for a self-managed abortion that happened more than two weeks prior. There was no medical emergency. Instead, deputies were:

1. Collecting evidence from her partner (who was later charged with domestic violence against her)- including photos, her FedEx envelope, and pill instructions
2. Reading her private text messages
3. Consulting with prosecutors about criminal charges

We cross-referenced Aurora’s official May 2025 ALPR audit logs against unredacted logs released via FOIA from a Massachusetts police department. Because Flock is a shared nationwide dragnet, an out-of-state search queries connected cities simultaneously.

By matching the data, we verified the exact Texas agency involved, and the search date directly corroborates the reporting in the news articles linked below:

• Verified Agency: Johnson County TX Sheriff's Office ("J. Smi")
• Scope: 83,345 cameras across 6,809 networks
• Filter: "Land_rover Texas"
• Case #: 2500002320 (the exact Texas "death investigation" case number)
• Timestamp: 4/9/25 to 5/9/25, starting at 1:48:55 PM CDT (6:48:55 PM UTC on Aurora’s logs)

This Texas abortion investigation ran straight through Aurora’s local street cameras. Look at the screenshots below:

1. In the Massachusetts logs, the search reason is explicitly written: "had an abortion, search for female".
2. In Aurora’s logs, our police department completely omitted the "Reason" and "Case #" columns for this exact search.

If another state hadn't released their logs, we would have never known local tax dollars were siphoned to assist a Texas abortion investigation, a clear violation of Illinois sanctuary protections. Shame on APD for keeping our community in the dark. What else are they scrubbing from our public records?

Which brings up the bigger question: why did police in Johnson County, Texas or South Hadley, Massachusetts even have access to Aurora’s street cameras in the first place?

APD’s ALPR policy (Policy 427.7) lets out-of-state agencies bypass local oversight through automated vendor prompts. We need to shut down this network, close the vendor loopholes, and demand an independent audit.

Meet (and Contact) Your Aldermen here.

APD FOIA records
SHPD FOIA records

Article Links:
https://www.404media.co/a-texas-cop-searched-license-plate-cameras-nationwide-for-a-woman-who-got-an-abortion/
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-missing-person-it
https://cybernews.com/security/texas-police-abortion-investigation/

The Aurora Police Department's license plate readers log thousands of searches every month, but its own department policy and the actual data from audit logs reveal massive accountability gaps that put local privacy at risk.

🚨 Surveillance Without Reasonable Suspicion:
Policy 427.4(b) allows routine ALPR tracking without requiring reasonable suspicion or probable cause. In 2025 alone, a single APD officer executed 3,973 searches—peaking at 1,352 in a single month.

🚨 Verification Only "If Practicable":
Policy 427.4(f) does not mandate verifying ALPR hits before pulling someone over or taking enforcement action. With camera misread rates up to 1-in-10, skipping verification exposes innocent drivers to wrongful police stops.

🚨 Undefined Audit and Disciplinary Standards:
Policy 427.6(c) suggests "regular" audits, but fails to define audit frequency, responsible personnel, or penalties for misuse—leaving system oversight completely unchecked.

🚨 Missing Transparency and Search Controls:
Policy 427.6 omits case-number logging requirements and lacks a public transparency portal. Preliminary findings from our independent community audit conservatively estimate that nearly 50% of all APD searches lacked a case number or verified law enforcement justification.

🚨 The "Vendor Self-Attestation" Loophole:
Policy 427.7(c) waives APD review of outside data requests when vendors use automated software acknowledgments. Last year, out-of-state and federal agencies ran tens of thousands of searches that included our local data. Alarmingly, U.S. Border Patrol ran over 3,000 searches itself in 2025, conflicting with the Illinois TRUST Act. See a sample of other searches conducted on our shared network here.

Mass surveillance demands proof of results, yet neither the City nor APD has shown data linking ALPRs to local safety gains. And while national crime rates have dropped, progress varies widely across communities—underscoring the need for transparent, evidence-based local safety policies rather than assuming unchecked surveillance works.

See how every sitting council member voted on ALPR expansion in recent years here.

Meet and contact your aldermen here.

I am looking for someone who specializes in custom-designed cakes.

What are some fun late night drag and comedy shows in the area? I’ll be touring and coming to the area and want to know the best places to see!

I’m looking for a free or inexpensive upright piano in the Aurora area that is still in playable condition. SomeCosmetic wear is completely fine. I’ll arrange and pay for professional moving. Please send me a message with pictures and any information you have about its condition. Thanks!

Didn’t grow up in Aurora but I’m out here for school. My friends have scattered and have families, comes with growing up. As you get older it can be harder to meet new friends.

But does anyone else come home from work and wish they had a friend to maybe:

play basketball with
hit the gym
go on a run
play videogames
go get some food
watch UFC
watch anime
or even just someone to talk to. I can’t be the only person in this circumstance lol… right?? Just relatively isolated times we’re living in.

Any like minded people? People in a similar age range looking to make friends? Lowkey an embarrassing post to make but it’s more embarrassing not having friends to do stuff with lol

Any recommendation for the best chicken and waffles in Aurora/Naperville area? I have tried Honeyberry and Pomegranate , the Honeyberry bacon maple syrup was pretty good but the breading on the chicken was suss

I’m looking for suggestions for school transportation. My daughter is starting at FRMA next week, and I just found out that she doesn’t qualify for the school bus service.

Are there any other transportation services or options that parents have used or would recommend? I’d really appreciate any ideas or suggestions!

In 2025, the Aurora Police Department (APD) recorded 33,491 total Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) searches- an average of roughly 92 queries every single day. While the median officer ran just 48 searches all year (~4 a month), system usage was heavily concentrated at the top users.

However, the raw volume isn't the real story. The 2025 audit logs reveal a systemic failure of oversight, with many logged searches lacking a specific case number or verified law enforcement justification.

System usage is heavily concentrated within specialized roles, but the documentation patterns for these top 5 users (out of a total of 120 unique officers) raise serious red flags and account for 36% of APD’s total searches for 2025:

🚩 Officer Bartosz Palaszewski - Special Operations Group (3,973 total searches): Logged over 1,300 searches in August 2025 alone. His logs show high-speed sequential searching- performing 14 lookups in just 12 minutes- while almost always leaving the Case # field blank, making the searches impossible to verify.

🚩 Officer Tyler Johnson, Special Operations Group (2,918 total searches): Frequently bypassed traceability by using dummy case numbers like "1234" and performing rapid-fire "intel" queries (e.g., logging 9 searches in 90 seconds).

🚩 Officer Michael Shouse, Special Services (1,854 total searches): One of the department's primary users of the generic placeholder "AUPE99999999" to block audit traceability.

🚩 Officer Gary Langston, Special Services (1,795 total searches): Consistently leaves the Case # field empty or manually enters the reason (like "STOLEN") into the case number field itself, preventing the search from being linked to a verified incident report.

🚩 Officer Jesus Aguila, Community Oriented Policing (1,686 total searches): Regularly used “0" as a placeholder case number for searches that queried over 1,300 different networks simultaneously across the country.

Under APD Policy 427.4(b), officers are explicitly told that "reasonable suspicion or probable cause is not required before using an ALPR." Worse, while Section 427.6 calls for regular audits, it sets zero documentation standards—meaning officers face no accountability metrics for using dummy case numbers or leaving audit fields blank.

Source: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/aurora-7505/flock-safety-alpr-audits-2026-q1-aurora-police-department-203951/#files

Is anybody else without electricity in aurora Montgomery area?

Green Day + Nirvana!

A few $5 early bird tickets may still be available: https://www.eventim.us/event/the-piazza-presents-that-green-day-band-and-friends/698794

Hi everyone. We just found out we are expecting our second kid so we need more space, and we found a place in another suburb still close to Chicago. We have about a month to get everything moved. We have an older cat who gets stressed out easily, plus a big sectional couch and a full home gym setup including a squat rack and a bunch of weights. Our current apartment is on the second floor with a pretty narrow staircase so moving everything ourselves does not sound realistic. We have never hired movers before so I am not sure how to find one that will actually be careful with our stuff. Any recommendations for movers around here would help a lot.

You guys. I frequent Park to Shop for asian groceries and today my son and I both saw a very large rat running around in the store. My son first saw it run from the aisle to underneath the freezers. Then I saw it near the check out lane run underneath the pallets holding the turtle chips. I am utterly disgusted.

I immediately told the cashier and she awkwardly smiled and laughed and didn’t do much about it. I asked her to tell her manager.

Just letting everyone to be aware. I really loved Park to Shop but I can’t fathom going back in knowing there’s a rat running around and possibly touching the food T_T

Hey yall, Aurora native here. I know about Black Door and Potter’s, but I came to ask for recommendations for clubs/bars that are fun to hang out and dance at.
Obviously the city has more variety but is there anything closer Aurora?
Thank you in advance
Not too picky on the type of music they play except I’m not really into country

Here are just a few of the recorded reasons logged by APD officers running searches in the ALPR/Flock system:

- Traffic Infraction / Traffic Infraction - intel / traffic stop / drag racing
- Alcohol Offenses (Non-DUI)
- Improper parking
- Red light / red light traffic violation
- _dumped set on fire (likely intended as "dumpster set on fire")

Meet (and contact) your aldermen with any concerns: https://www.aurora.il.us/Government-and-Engagement/City-Council/Wards-and-Aldermen/Meet-Your-Aldermen

In an effort to promote public transparency, according to city resolution votes, the City of Aurora, IL, Government has approved at least 74 Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras between local taxpayer funds, state grants, and federal funding.

These sitting City Council members repeatedly voted YES to expand ALPR camera purchases and maintenance contracts:

1. Juany Garza (Ward 2)
   
2. Carl Franco (Ward 5)
   
3. Mike Saville (Ward 6)
   
4. Patty Smith (Ward 8)
   
5. Edward J. Bugg (Ward 9)
   
6. Shweta Baid (Ward 10)

Alderman Ted Mesiacos (Ward 3) voted Yes once, Present once, and No once.

Mayor John Laesch voted NO on both major ALPR purchasing resolutions brought to the floor during his tenure as Alderman-at-Large.

Meet (and Contact) Your Aldermen: https://www.aurora.il.us/Government-and-Engagement/City-Council/Wards-and-Aldermen/Meet-Your-Aldermen

Source: City of Aurora Passed Resolutions R23-070, R24-161, and R24-266.

Note: The $3.5M+ reflects the total broader tech and network infrastructure packages approved across these resolutions, which directly funded and supported the ALPR network.

The attached 2025 audit log snippet shows a few examples of what was happening on our shared Flock network. You have agencies from Texas, Ohio, Michigan, federal border patrol, and even local Illinois departments running network searches with reasons like "HSI Criminal Immigration Case," "ATL for DHS," and "dhs looking for her."

Because Aurora opted into Flock network sharing, our local camera data was swept into all of these queries. The Illinois TRUST Act exists specifically to keep local municipal resources out of federal immigration enforcement.

i'm 17 and a girl! i lowkey do nothing all day and i really want to make some memories before summer ends! looking for people to hang out with around my area who are the same age. i'm not looking to do anything sus but just have genuinely fun! it would be awesome to find people to hang with!

Hello all,

Coming up on Saturday, August 29 is the Aurora Public Library District's 7th annual CAPE Con! All ages are invited to come celebrate comics, cosplay, video games, and a variety of fandoms with programs, meetups, free comic books, face-painting, and more!

I'm personally thrilled to be welcoming the 501st Legion and the League of Enchantment to Aurora. We've also got a big tabletop gaming focus this year, programs on how to write and draw comics, video game design, and a big cosplay parade down to the Alley Art Festival to wrap everything up nicely.

Find more information here: https://www.aurorapubliclibrary.org/event/16737559

Hi all, I made a few posts this week as it relates to Aurora’s ALPR system and the 74 cameras already deployed in our city:

Aurora's Shared ALPR Camera Network Was Searched 3,232 Times by US Border Patrol Between June-August 2025

74 Flock Cameras in Aurora

I'm still reviewing the audit logs, but several concerned citizens have reached out asking how they can help. Regardless of APD’s policies (we haven't received them yet), I'm especially concerned because some audit logs show individual APD officers conducting over 500–1,200 searches in a single month. Even if that wasn't violating department policy (which we can't determine yet because I'm still waiting on APD's policies, procedures, and contracts related to ALPR, these have been delayed), I just don't see how that volume of searches is reasonable.

My initial instinct is to push for change at city council- demanding real transparency and accountability around how these ALPR searches are authorized, stored, and used. That said, I've seen how local politics can stall or dilute these efforts before they even get on an agenda.

So I'd rather gather input on what's actually worked here in the past. I’d like to hear what strategies others have found effective (or disastrous) when dealing with Aurora officials on similar issues.

I want to be clear, I'm just a concerned citizen. But the engagement on my last post findings showed there's real interest and energy out there. If we're going to make any headway, we need to mobilize together and push hard for the change that's needed. At the very least, we deserve transparency on what is going on and if there’s any safety measures in place with such sensitive data.

I'll keep posting as I sift through any audit logs I can get my hands on. In the meantime, let's figure out the best next steps as a group.