Security fog · village by village
Which villages have rules on security fog, and what they say.
Two villages in the south suburbs have now written security fog into their own code. Twenty-two others have not. This page tracks all of them, it carries the date it was last checked, and it is maintained by hand because there is no other way to do it — nobody publishes this.
Read this before you look anything up
The published village code is not current, and in the two places that matter it is wrong
Villages do not host their own ordinances. They pay a codifier — American Legal, Municode, eCode360 — and the codifier updates on a lag of months. Alsip and Oak Lawn both adopted fog ordinances in 2026 and neither one appears in its published code yet.
Which means if you searched the code library for either village, you would have found nothing and concluded there was no rule. There is a rule. There are several, and one of them governs where you mount a strobe.
The current answer lives with the village board, not the code library
New ordinances appear in board agendas, packets and minutes months before they reach the codifier. That is where we look, and it is where anyone telling you what your village requires should be looking too.
It is also why every row in the table below carries a date. A page like this without a date on it is not information, it is decoration.
Adopted
Alsip
The stricter of the two, and the more carefully thought through. Alsip’s requirements are aimed squarely at the problem a fogger creates for the fire service — a crew opening a door into a room they cannot see into, with no idea why it is full of vapour.
- PERMITAn electrical permit from the Building Department, applied for before the unit goes in.
- FLUIDWater-based fog fluid only. Oil-based is out, and the stated reason is respiratory safety.
- STROBEAn orange strobe on each side of the building, so arriving firefighters know what is behind the door before they open it.
- SHUNT KEYA means for the village to shut the system down — including during a power failure, and any time a crew has to be inside.
- FIRE DEPTThe fire department is told the system exists, so a discharge is not answered as a working fire.
As of mid-August 2026, no permits had yet been issued under it.
Adopted
Oak Lawn
Lighter touch, and it sits alongside a village alarm registration regime that has been running for years. The distinctive requirement is the sign.
- PERMITPermitted through the Building Department. The unit is a fixed electrical installation, not an appliance.
- SIGNAn exterior warning sign. The wording reported is: “Warning: security fogging system installed. System may activate when business is closed. Call 911 in an emergency.”
- ALARM CODEChapter 12 of the village code already governs alarm systems. A fog unit that fires and brings a response sits inside that, not beside it.
The full picture
Cook County
| Village | Security fog ordinance | Alarm ordinance | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alsip | Yes — adopted 2026 | Not established | 12 September 2026 |
| Oak Lawn | Yes — adopted 2026 | Yes — Ch. 12, Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Blue Island | None on record | Yes — Ch. 97, Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Chicago Heights | None on record | Not established | 12 September 2026 |
| Country Club Hills | None on record | None — no alarm ordinance | 12 September 2026 |
| Crestwood | None on record | None — no alarm ordinance | 12 September 2026 |
| Lemont | None on record | Yes — Ch. 9.08, False Alarms | 12 September 2026 |
| Matteson | None on record | Yes — Ch. 91, Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Oak Forest | None on record | Yes — Ch. 92, Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Orland Park | None on record | Yes — Ch. 3, Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Palos Heights | None on record | Yes — § 99.06, Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Tinley Park | None on record | Yes — Ch. 92, Burglar & Robbery Alarms | 12 September 2026 |
Will County
| Village | Security fog ordinance | Alarm ordinance | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bolingbrook | None on record | Yes — Ch. 12, Art. III, Div. 8 | 12 September 2026 |
| Crete | None on record | Not established | 12 September 2026 |
| Frankfort | None on record | Yes — Ch. 91, Telephonic Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Homer Glen | None on record | Yes — Ch. 83, Art. V, Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Joliet | None on record | Yes — Ch. 18, Public Safety Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Lockport | None on record | Not established | 12 September 2026 |
| Manhattan | None on record | Not established | 12 September 2026 |
| Mokena | None on record | Yes — Ch. 2, Burglar & Fire Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
| Monee | None on record | Not established | 12 September 2026 |
| New Lenox | None on record | Not established | 12 September 2026 |
| Plainfield | None on record | Not established | 12 September 2026 |
| Romeoville | None on record | Yes — Ch. 96, Alarm Systems | 12 September 2026 |
A note on honesty, because it affects how you should use this table. Two of the three codifiers publish their libraries in a form that can be read and checked chapter by chapter. The third does not. Where we could enumerate every chapter in a village’s code, the entry is stated plainly. Where we could not, it is in italics and it means exactly what it says: not established, ask the village. We would rather show you the gap than paper over it.
Probably next
Villages worth watching
These four have the same problem the two adopting villages had, and in some cases appear in the same news coverage. None of them has adopted anything we have found.
Chicago Ridge
Named in the same reporting as Alsip and Oak Lawn, with the same pattern of gaming-room burglaries. No ordinance reported.
Burbank
Same coverage, same problem, nothing on the books yet that we have found.
Crestwood
Sits between the two villages that have acted, and has no alarm ordinance at all — so anything it adopts would be built from scratch.
Homer Glen
Named in the burglary reporting. Has an established alarm ordinance already, which is the usual place a fog provision gets added.
How this page is kept
What checking a village actually involves
- 01Board agendas and minutes first. A new ordinance shows up here months before it reaches the code library. This is the only step that finds something before everybody else knows about it.
- 02Then the codified code — for the baseline. Does this village have an alarm ordinance at all, and what does it already require?
- 03Search for the right words. Security fog is almost never indexed under “fog.” It turns up under fogger, fogging, smoke-generating, smoke-emitting, obscurant, or inside an alarm chapter that never uses any of those words.
- 04Then the building department, by phone. The definitive answer, and the one that gets written on your quote with a date and a name against it.
- 05And the fire department separately. In several villages they are the ones who actually care, and the building department will not know what they want.
If your village is not on this list
We will find out for you, and you do not have to buy anything
We make these calls anyway — before every install, in every village, because a fogger fitted without a permit is a problem that surfaces at three in the morning with a fire crew outside. If you want to know where your village stands, ask us and we will check it and tell you, whether or not you ever become a customer.
Last checked 12 September 2026. This page is informational and is not legal advice. The Alsip and Oak Lawn requirements above are drawn from published news reporting; at the time of writing neither ordinance had appeared in its village’s codified code, and we have not obtained the adopted text. Confirm current requirements with your village before relying on anything here — we do, before every install. Corrections are welcome and we will date them. Related: how security fog works · fog permits and ordinances · fog for gaming rooms and VGT parlors · where we work.