McHenry County cop accused of using Flock plate reader hundreds of times to track women he dated, others
Newly released FOIA records show Woodstock, IL has a data sharing agreement with the Prairie Grove police department.
Holiday Hills police chief and part-time Prairie Grove police officer William Copp, of Crystal Lake, IL has been fired from the Prairie Grove PD and charged with official misconduct, a class 3 felony, for unlawfully using Flock license plate readers and a law enforcement database to contact and track people he knew.
Saying “people he knew” kind of undersells the point. He (allegedly) stalked six people. Three were women he had been in romantic relationships with and another was the ex-boyfriend of one of those women, whom he had searched 140 times. He made these searches over a period between Feb. 26, 2024, and Nov. 5, 2025.
We’ve been seeing it happen all over the country. We pleaded with the Mayor and City Council to reject the Flock contract for this very reason (among others).
Woodstock’s data is widely shared and was most likely compromised
A Freedom of Information Act request shows that the City of Woodstock shares data with other Flock customers across Illinois, including Prairie Grove PD, where the abuse was alleged to occur.
https://woodstockil.justfoia.com/Attachments/Download/223b7125-7cf1-4004-aecc-08a46cba669e
This is unacceptable. Chief Lieb vouched for his officers, and I have no reason to doubt his words, but does he also vouch for the integrity of every single person with Flock access in every single one of those 339 jurisdictions1 to strictly follow the law for every single search?
Flock does not take data safety seriously and they do not meaningfully control access to prevent abuse. Their audit logs can be updated or deleted. They lie, all the time. They sell our data. A for-profit private surveillance startup with a $7.5B valuation seeking an IPO has only one motive, growth at all costs. Safety was never the goal.
Get Flock Safety OUT of Woodstock, IL.
Contact your city council members.
You may be able to see that the spreadsheet is not totally clear on this. This 339 number is based on the number rows that have values in all 3 columns. I’ve asked for clarification from the FOIA office, but I know they are busy and it’s now the weekend. When I get a response, I will update this story in the clear and transparent way.