Who licenses access-control installers in Illinois?

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Installers work under a Private Alarm Contractor Agency licence with a licensed Private Alarm Contractor in charge, under 225 ILCS 447. Look up both licences on the IDFPR site, and ask whether city wiring work also needs a Chicago electrical contractor licence.

Does using GateStride in Illinois raise BIPA concerns?

Not by default. Standard GateStride uses phone, watch or tablet credentials and non-biometric detection, so it does not collect fingerprints or face geometry. Facial recognition is an optional feature, off by default; if you ever consider it in Illinois, BIPA’s notice, written release and retention rules apply, so involve counsel first.

Our building in the Loop has turnstiles run by the landlord. What does GateStride cover?

Your own suite doors. The lobby turnstiles and garage stay with building management. GateStride works with the system that controls the doors your company leases, adding phone unlock and a record of who has left your floor.

Do I have to replace my access control to use GateStride in Chicago?

No. GateStride overlays the system you already run, reading its events and calling its own unlock. Your readers, controllers, locks, request-to-exit and fire release stay exactly as they are.

Does GateStride have an office in Chicago?

No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve the Chicago metropolitan area without a local office. The small node at each door is installed by a licensed security integrator, often the one who already services your system.

Will it lower what we pay each month?

It can, if you pay per-user or per-mobile-credential fees, buy replacement badges, or spend staff time issuing and revoking them. Use the savings calculator with your own invoices to see the figure for your office; if you pay none of those, the case rests on the features instead.

Can we see who has left the building without anyone swiping out?

Yes. Exits are recorded from the enrolled phone, watch or tablet people carry, while the door keeps releasing freely as it does today. That gives a live who's-inside list and a one-tap roll call during an evacuation.

Locations / Chicago, IL

Office access control in Chicago — phones on the doors you already have, and no fingerprints required.

Whether your company leases a floor in the Loop, a converted warehouse in Fulton Market, a suite in River North or space in an office park off the Tollway in Schaumburg, Oak Brook or Deerfield, there is almost certainly a card reader on the door already. GateStride works with that system instead of replacing it: staff open doors with their phones, you stop buying and chasing badges, and you can see who has actually left the building — without collecting anyone’s fingerprint or face.

Request a Chicago demo Work out your savings

Downtown Chicago office towers along the river

Where Chicago companies keep their offices

The Loop is still the city’s commercial core, with the trading and banking towers around LaSalle Street and the high-rises along Wacker Drive and the river. Around it, small and mid-size firms have spread into the West Loop and Fulton Market, where former warehouses and new mid-rise buildings house tech, design and food companies, and into River North and Streeterville, where agencies, law firms and medical practices take floors in mixed-use towers. Out in the suburbs, the O’Hare and Rosemont area, the I-90 corridor through Schaumburg, the I-88 corridor through Oak Brook and Naperville, and the North Shore office parks around Northbrook and Deerfield hold a large share of regional offices.

Downtown, a tenant usually lives behind two sets of doors: the building’s turnstiles or lobby desk, which the landlord runs, and the suite entrance, which the tenant pays for. In a loft conversion or a single-tenant suburban building the company may own every reader. Either way, the doors the company controls are the ones where GateStride adds phone unlock and an exit record, while the landlord’s lobby system stays as it is.

Winter at the vestibule. In January nobody wants to stand in a doorway pulling off a glove to find a fob, and a door propped open lets the cold in. Walk-up phone unlock opens the suite door as people arrive, so it closes again sooner.
Commuters on several lines. Chicago staff arrive by CTA, Metra and car from all over the region, and hybrid schedules mean the office is full on some days and empty on others. A live list of who is in replaces guesswork about who came in today.
A city office and a suburban one. Many firms keep a downtown presence for clients and a larger suburban site for operations. GateStride runs both from one account, with each site’s doors and who-is-inside list kept separate.

Where Chicago offices overpay for access control

The running cost of access control in a Chicago office tends to hide in plain sight: a renewal here, a box of cards there, a few hours of someone’s week. Added up over a lease term it is real money.

Per-person fees

Cardholder, user or mobile-credential charges that rise with every hire, even though no door changed.

Badges that walk out

Lost, broken and never-returned cards and fobs, each one a purchase and a gap until it is disabled.

Office-manager hours

Issuing badges on day one, chasing them on the last day, and letting people in who forgot theirs.

The replacement quote

New readers, controllers, wiring and subscriptions proposed for a system that still works.

GateStride connects to the system you already own as a single integration user and manages your people itself, so staff who move to phone access stop adding per-person credential costs on the underlying system, and nobody needs a badge printed. Put your own numbers into the savings calculator to see what that is worth for your office, and check your vendor’s licence terms with your integrator.

Knowing who is still inside, in Chicago

Downtown Chicago is a high-rise city, and a fire alarm in a tower means tenants on dozens of floors heading for the stairwells while floor wardens try to work out who is already outside. Most card systems can tell you who came in that morning, not who has left, so the count at the assembly point is done from memory.

Winter adds another kind of evacuation: the early close. When a heavy snowstorm is forecast and a company sends people home before the roads get worse, the office manager wants to know the building is empty before locking up. With exits recorded, that is a list to check rather than a walk round every room.

Most card systems log people coming in, not going out, because exits release freely. GateStride records who left from the phone they carry, without a swipe, and turns a fire drill into a one-tap roll call. How exit tracking works.

Exit tracking supports accountability. It is not a substitute for free egress, your evacuation plan or your certified fire and life-safety systems.

Rules that apply to Chicago offices

Before anyone touches a door, three things are worth knowing. This is general information, not legal or life-safety advice; confirm specifics with the agencies below and your own counsel.

Checking your installer is licensed in Illinois

Illinois regulates alarm installers under the Private Detective, Private Alarm, Private Security, Fingerprint Vendor, and Locksmith Act of 2004 (225 ILCS 447). A company doing this work needs a Private Alarm Contractor Agency licence, with a full-time licensed Private Alarm Contractor as its licensee-in-charge, and must carry general liability insurance. Both the agency and the individual licence can be checked on the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) licence lookup. Work inside the city that involves wiring may also need a City of Chicago electrical contractor licence, so ask about that too.

Source: Illinois Compiled Statutes, 225 ILCS 447

Who enforces door and egress rules in Chicago

Chicago writes its own construction codes rather than adopting the International Building Code as published. The Department of Buildings develops and enforces the Chicago Construction Codes; the 2019 Chicago Building Code, the first comprehensive rewrite since 1949, is based on the 2018 International Building Code, and the Chicago Electrical Code was adopted in 2017. Requirements for locked and electrified doors therefore follow Chicago’s version, not plain IBC, and suburban cities have their own departments. Check before changing how a door releases; GateStride does not change door release.

Source: City of Chicago: Chicago Building Code online

Privacy and biometric law in Illinois

Illinois has the strictest biometric privacy law in the country. The Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA, 740 ILCS 14), enacted in 2008, requires a private business to give written notice and obtain a written release before collecting biometric identifiers such as fingerprints or face geometry, and to publish a policy on how long it keeps that data and when it destroys it. Unlike most state laws, BIPA lets individuals sue: the statute sets damages of $1,000 per negligent violation and $5,000 per intentional or reckless one. Fingerprint readers and face-matching cameras on office doors fall squarely within it; phone unlock without biometric capture by the system avoids most of that exposure. Ask counsel before enabling any biometric feature in Illinois.

Source: Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14

GateStride’s default uses device credentials and non-biometric person detection, so no biometric data is collected. Facial recognition is optional, off by default, and offered only where it is legally compliant and you choose to enable it.

Works with the systems Chicago integrators install

You keep your vendor and your integrator. GateStride overlays Kantech EntraPass, Honeywell, LenelS2 OnGuard, Software House C•CURE, HID and Brivo by reading their events and calling their own unlock. See the integrations, the architecture, or how an upgrade compares with ripping everything out for a cloud platform. Chicago-area integrators commonly support LenelS2, Genetec, AMAG, Software House C•CURE, Kantech EntraPass, Brivo, HID and Paxton, among others; if your suite runs one of these, GateStride can sit on top of it.

For Chicago security integrators

Chicagoland’s integrators already look after thousands of office doors, from Loop high-rises to Tollway office parks. GateStride gives you a reason to go back to those sites with something new: phone unlock and exit tracking layered on the controllers you installed, with nothing torn out and no new certification to earn. You earn resale margin per site, the customer relationship stays with you, and your Illinois clients get mobile access without a biometric question to answer.

Chicago’s security community meets through ASIS International Chicago Chapter · Illinois Electronic Security Association (IESA).

See the partner program

Questions from Chicago offices

Who licenses access-control installers in Illinois?: The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Installers work under a Private Alarm Contractor Agency licence with a licensed Private Alarm Contractor in charge, under 225 ILCS 447. Look up both licences on the IDFPR site, and ask whether city wiring work also needs a Chicago electrical contractor licence.
Does using GateStride in Illinois raise BIPA concerns?: Not by default. Standard GateStride uses phone, watch or tablet credentials and non-biometric detection, so it does not collect fingerprints or face geometry. Facial recognition is an optional feature, off by default; if you ever consider it in Illinois, BIPA’s notice, written release and retention rules apply, so involve counsel first.
Our building in the Loop has turnstiles run by the landlord. What does GateStride cover?: Your own suite doors. The lobby turnstiles and garage stay with building management. GateStride works with the system that controls the doors your company leases, adding phone unlock and a record of who has left your floor.
Do I have to replace my access control to use GateStride in Chicago?: No. GateStride overlays the system you already run, reading its events and calling its own unlock. Your readers, controllers, locks, request-to-exit and fire release stay exactly as they are.
Does GateStride have an office in Chicago?: No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve the Chicago metropolitan area without a local office. The small node at each door is installed by a licensed security integrator, often the one who already services your system.
Will it lower what we pay each month?: It can, if you pay per-user or per-mobile-credential fees, buy replacement badges, or spend staff time issuing and revoking them. Use the savings calculator with your own invoices to see the figure for your office; if you pay none of those, the case rests on the features instead.
Can we see who has left the building without anyone swiping out?: Yes. Exits are recorded from the enrolled phone, watch or tablet people carry, while the door keeps releasing freely as it does today. That gives a live who's-inside list and a one-tap roll call during an evacuation.

See it on your Chicago doors

A short demo on the access control you already have — no rip-and-replace.

Request a demo Work out your savings

Sources

Last reviewed October 2026. Trademarks belong to their respective owners; GateStride is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by any access-control manufacturer.