RMnoFlock: Get Flock out of Rolling Meadows

Records collected by haveibeenflocked.com show Rolling Meadows searches with reason “Suspicious Protester Vehicle ‘No Kings’.” (RM Flock Record 7eafdb19-e6ee-4497-8671-93c65a30d855
) If that entry reflects a search of a protester’s vehicle because of its association with a demonstration, it raises serious First Amendment concerns. Rolling Meadows residents deserve to know whether the city’s Flock cameras were used to identify or track people connected to the “No Kings” protests—and why.

The First Amendment protects the right to speak, assemble, and protest. A government system that makes people’s movements searchable can chill those freedoms, especially when a search is tied to protest activity rather than a specific, legitimate law-enforcement need. A label like “suspicious” is not an explanation of wrongdoing. The public should be able to see the underlying records and understand who searched, what was searched, and what justification was given.

ABC Chicago reported that “No Kings” demonstrations were planned across Chicago and nearby suburbs, including Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Palatine, and Schaumburg, for October 18, 2025. The article described the demonstrations as peaceful events organized around political expression and noted that Chicago police said they would protect people exercising their First Amendment rights. ABC Chicago

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Planned 10/13 statement to the Rolling Meadows city council:

Mayor, City Council, thank you for your time and for the time you give our community.

I’d like to report a crime and request an investigation into suspected ongoing illegal activity being conducted by the city. 

Rolling Meadows allowed West Chicago police officers to search RM Flock cameras for at least 16 license plates for reasons associated with immigration at least 469 times according to Flock Logs (Appendix A). 

Whatever you think of immigration enforcement, using the cameras for this purpose is against state law. The Illinois ALPR law is very short. I’ll include it here for reference (emphasis added): 

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Sept 22 speech to the city council

Mayor, Council, thank you for your service and for being here tonight.

My message today is about another case of Rolling Meadows cameras being used for stalking, this time across state lines in Milwaukee. 

According to reporting by the Wisconsin Examiner and a criminal complaint filed by the Milwaukee district attorney’s office, Josue Ayala conducted over a hundred searches of two peoples license plates. The two people were in a relationship and later broke up. After the break up, officer Ayala began dating one of the victims and continued using Flock to track the victim while they dated.

The complaint states that Ayala was on duty when he conducted the searches and he pleaded guilty to misconduct. When officers use Flock, they need to put in a reason for the search. Ayala used “investigation” in order to conduct the unlawful searches. This is also the most common search reason used by Rolling Meadows officers according to haveibeenflocked.com. This effectively prevents any meaningful review or audit.

Since I’m standing here telling you this, you already know that Alaya searched Rolling Meadows’ cameras, as shown in our audit logs.

Then this story gets weird.

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Rolling Meadows resident J.M. filed a FOIA request for Flock Camera information from Harper College.

Responsive Documents

If you live in Rolling Meadows, your tax dollars are paying for Harper’s cameras. Let the Harper College Board of trustees know what you think: email the board of trustees.

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Speech to the city council on 9/8:

City Council, thank you for your service and for being here tonight.

My message today is about another case in which Rolling Meadows Flock cameras were used for stalking. Atthe July council meeting, we showed that logs indicate Rolling Meadows Flock cameras were used to stalkthree women and their friends by Police Chief William C. Copp of Holiday Hills. He was charged with a Class3 felony. The city did not follow RMPD Policy 447.7 when it shared residents’ movement data in this case,and it has tried to dismiss the city’s role in the harm done to these victims.

At the July council meeting, I said I could show a pattern of abuse, so I will continue to do that now for therecord. This time, the case involves Lieutenant Jeremy Harrison of Joliet, Illinois. According to Joliet Patch,Lieutenant Harrison accessed the Flock system and conducted about 153 searches for a woman’s licenseplate. At the time, the Joliet Police Department was not investigating the woman or her vehicle. Harrison wasfired for using the system for personal reasons to track her location. This is the third case in which RollingMeadows Flock cameras were used in a crime. In addition, the city violated its own Policy 447.7 by sharingthis data with Joliet without oversight.

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The city gave the Flock representative around an hour to explain his side of the story but their own residents only 2 minutes each. I’ll use this opportunity to respond to the city’s presentation slide by slide.

This is great to see. I wish every city would do this. It can be very difficult to discern from FOIA documents where these cameras are installed. Rolling Meadows cameras had been spotted and are all documented on Deflock.org

What doesn’t make sense about the LPR #01 camera and the one on Euclid is that we’ve heard that the cameras are being installed in ‘areas with a high demand for service’. This camera is surveilling people getting off 53 and going to residential neighborhoods in Ward 3 and Ward 7, some of the lowest crime areas in the city. Why do we have this here?

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If there’s one thing I’m thankful about this issue, it’s the people.

Thank you to everyone how came out tonight. It was great to see everyone and hear everyone’s impassioned speeches. Thank you to all of the speakers and audience for being respectful.

The Flock topic ran for nearly an hour and a half. The flock representative had some major explaining to do and I don’t think anyone, council included was satisfied with all or many of his answers.

The council asked for time to review follow up data from the Flock representative and the evidence that I provided.

For me the most interesting part was learning more about the council itself. Our council people have a diverse background and come at this topic from incredibly different views.

Write me if you have notes or impressions of the meeting and I’ll post them here.

One thing I learned is that we need a mailing list for group discussion to build this community – there were several IT and software engineers at the meeting – if any of you have recommendations, please reach out.

I honestly don’t know where we stand. There was supposed to be a straw poll. There wasn’t. Now what? — call your alder people and ask! It sounds like they all got calls! Keep it up!

Council, thank you for your service.

My message tonight is about TRUST. The trust of a city in its government. The trust of citizens in their elected officials. The trust of residents in their Police Department. 

Trust is difficult to earn and is the foundation of our safety.

City staff [Rob Sabo] has told us repeatedly that the city’s use of Flock cameras follows the law.

In an email to residents on April 20 the City Manager [Rob Sabo] said “when Illinois Secretary of State Giannoulias… showed improper utilization of Flock Camera information, [the city] immediately checked our records to ensure our cameras were not accessed for uses that are not permitted by State law”

The City Manager [Rob Sabo] said in an email he assured our State Representative Nicolle Grasse “any utilization strictly adhered to the legally applicable uses for such equipment.”

And again at the July Council Meeting [Rob] Sabo said “we do not share information with Federal Immigration”.

My understanding is that sensitive communities in Rolling Meadows have reached out asking for protection from crime and in response we’ve used Flock cameras ensuring them these cameras were not used for immigration.

However, recently received FOIA documents show the exact opposite appears to be the case. Your own records show CBP has accessed our cameras for reason codes associated with immigration enforcement, a use not permitted by state law. Here is the evidence. Your department screenshots from your own logs. Who is accountable?

If City Staff [Rob Sabo] and their vendor can not be trusted to reliably tell the truth about how this technology is being used, no one in this city can feel safe. We can not trust this technology or this vendor and we question our own city staff. Now we turn to the council.

Now is the time for the council to right the wrong it initiated in 2023 when it approved ALPRs. Over 500 people have signed our petition. Cancel the Rolling Meadows Flock Contract and launch an investigation to get to the bottom of this so residents know who we may be able to trust again.

Thank you.

Original FOIA records: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EcLmNX5LGev4efp6QKf8BnG4kf3VZ9UO?usp=share_link

City should be focusing on beautification

If Glen Cole, Rob Sabo and members of the City of Rolling Meadows staff are so concerned about enforcing city ordinances by removing anti Flock signage, how about issues that really make a difference in our community like grass cutting, weed removal and the overall upkeep of properties.

Weeds and grass growing excessively are common throughout Rolling Meadows along with front or side lawns being used for unapproved exterior storage. We need to take more pride in our community and clean things up, which will increase all of our home values and beautify our city.

Tom Stellmach

Rolling Meadows

We requested time to share our side of the story at the August 25 City Council meeting. Instead, the city has decided to bring Flock to try to explain itself. This is a company that appears to have lied to city councils in the past about their business practices. Their incentives are shaped by continuing to profit off of the communities they are surveilling.

We’ve asked for equal time and that the city bring in the ACLU, EFF or the Institute for Justice to give an unbiased opinion from a group who does not stand to benefit financially from their statements to the council. The Council has a Fiduciary Responsibility to the tax payers, and bringing in only one biased opinion calls into question that responsibility.

If you care about government spying on you, we urge you to come and voice your opinion. There will be a straw poll on whether the city should continue using ALPRs. Although a straw poll is not necessarily a final vote or binding decision, the council’s understanding of public opinion will be important. Your voice is critical. If you support ending or pausing the use of Flock cameras, please attend and make your position clear.

Meeting details

Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Location: Rolling Meadows City Hall, Council Chambers
Address: 3600 Kirchoff Road, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

Get a yellow sticker to show your support!

The Committee of the Whole meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. The regular City Council meeting will begin afterward, but not before 7:00 p.m. Flock cameras and ALPR use are on the agenda.

If you plan to speak, arrive by 6:15 p.m. so you have time to find a seat and prepare.

Where to go when you arrive

Enter through the front door of City Hall. Once inside:

1. Walk past the windows for the Finance Office and the Community Development Office.
2. Go up the stairs.
3. At the top of the stairs, turn left.
4. Walk around the hall.
5. The Council Chambers will be ahead.

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Our sign campaign took off like a powder keg. A silent majority of people don’t want this technology and certainly don’t want their tax dollars paying for it.

City Staff took 57 of the signs they could find citing right of way violations. We sent this note to the city manager.

Another report [of the city taking signs] on [redacted] in Ward 3.  

Agree on keeping this exchange respectful but people are not happy at the city’s move here and I understand their frustration.

People feel like their fourth amendment right is threatened by this issue and feel like their first amendment right is being taken away.  

There are many signs across our community and very few follow the rules you’re enforcing here.  This feels like selective enforcement.  

People are mad and now feel like they are being singled out for speaking out and that can feel like intimidation.

A de-escalating move here would be to talk to residents or leave a note about the law rather than take their sign.  

On the plus side, they did give them back.

Email rmnoflock@gmail.com with a drop-off address and we’ll deliver.

UPDATE: Did the city take your yard sign? You have a first amendment right to use your voice – email and we’ll drop off another one!

Put up a yard sign! Email rmnoflock@gmail.com with a drop-off address and we’ll deliver.

How to participate during 8/16–8/22

Action doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. It can be as simple as:

• Showing up for the council meeting on 8/25 at 6:30p. Flock cameras are on the agenda. Tell the council what you think! The flock company might be there!
• Contacting local decision-makers and requesting a clear timeline for removal
• Sharing the message widely so more neighbors understand what’s at stake
• Asking for accountability—documentation, compliance details, and responses that residents can evaluate
• Put up a yard sign! Email rmnoflock@gmail.com with a drop-off address and we’ll deliver.

If you’ve been waiting for a moment to turn concern into action, this is it. National weeks of action help amplify local voices, and local voices are what create real change.

From August 16 through August 22, community members across the country are being invited to take part in a national week of action—an opportunity to speak up, organize, and push for accountable, transparent public policy at the local level.

Here in Rolling Meadows, that call is clear: cancel the Flock contract and restore community trust.

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Safety or surveillance? Debate over license plate cameras in the suburbs heats up

Speech to the city council on 7/28.

Mayor, members of the Rolling Meadows City Council, thank you for your service and for being here tonight. I appreciate the time and attention you give to our community.

My message today is about Flock cameras and other automated license plate reader camera systems in Rolling Meadows. When these systems are misused, they become tools for harassment, stalking, and violations of basic privacy rights—at precisely the scale and speed that makes accountability difficult, and that’s why they’re a liability rather than an asset for our community.

Rolling Meadows is about 20 miles from Holiday Hills, Illinois, and the case involving its police chief should be understood by everyone here. Prosecutors alleged that William C. Copp—who served as police chief for Holiday Hills and also worked as an officer in Prairie Grove—used Flock license plate readers hundreds of times to track three women he was connected to romantically and their friends. Prosecutors said the unauthorized searches were conducted for personal purposes, and in at least one alleged instance, the tracking was paired with calls and threats. The court petition states that Copp called one of the men on his “police phone” on September 1 and left a threatening voicemail telling him to no longer have contact with his ex-girlfriend—who Copp also allegedly knew through his own relationship. Copp allegedly told the man, “This is the only time that I’m going to be nice about this,” and then called again on September 22, telling him to leave her alone.

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RMnoFlock: This Isn’t “Just Cameras”—It’s a Community-Wide Movement Ledger

If you drive through Rolling Meadows, you’re not imagining it: the streets are being watched. The debate is usually framed in comforting phrases—public safety, crime prevention, not 24/7—but residents feel something else too: that everyday life has become trackable.

A July 14, 2026 letter from the City acknowledges the practical reality of these systems. It describes “approximately twelve months of data consisting of millions of individual data entries,” with “more than 3,000,000 rows of data” requiring review and redaction before release. In plain language: the city isn’t dealing with a handful of incidents. It’s dealing with a flood of motion records.

And that’s exactly why communities across the country have been moving to de-Flock.

Flock doesn’t sell protection, they sell your movement data, every plate a datapoint, every route a product

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Pursuant to Illinois Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records related to the department’s ALPR systrems:

(1) ALPR Law compliance documentation

(625 ILCS 5/2-130) requires “(c) Any ALPR user in this State, including any law enforcement agency of this State that uses ALPR systems, shall not share ALPR information with an out-of-state law enforcement agency without first obtaining a written declaration from the out-of-state law enforcement agency that it expressly affirms that ALPR information obtained shall not be used in a manner that violates subsection (b). If a written declaration of affirmation is not executed, the law enforcement agency shall not share the ALPR information with the out-of-state law enforcement agency.”

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Subject: Public records request regarding license plate reader technology
Pursuant to Illinois Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
Records related to the department’s Flock Safety system:

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I want to put names to impact. I spoke with the resident at [REDACTED] in the Third Ward. You’ll see her house on the Kirchoff street camera photo. If you look at where the camera on Kirchoff is pointing, it appears to capture a private residence in a way that may volate Section 26-4 of the Illinois Criminal Code. She has lived there for over 40 years, and she told me no one asked her for permission to have her home recorded. She still remembers when the old red light cameras flashed at her house at night. I’m asking the City to publish—clearly and publicly—the specific field-of-view safeguards that are used to prevent private residential areas from being captured, and the legal compliance standards the City is relying on.

Published Jun 22, 2026 12:05 PM:

While Flock claims its system tracks vehicles, not people, the documented record of police chiefs stalking ex-partners through Flock shows otherwise. When the most experienced, highest-ranking officers in law enforcement, the people most responsible for enforcing the rules, demonstrate ongoing abuses, the answer is the same courts have given for each generation of powerful tracking technology: require a warrant first.

The police chief of Holiday Hills, Illinois, and a part-time officer at Prairie Grove Police Department, was arrested June 18, 2026, and charged with two counts of official misconduct, a Class 3 felony.

Prosecutors alleged he used Prairie Grove’s Flock license plate reader system and the Illinois State Police LEADS database to track six people he knew personally.

Read the full article: https://ipvm.com/reports/police-chiefs-track

May 25, 2026
Freedom of Information Officer 
City of Rolling Meadows Police Department 
Attn: Judy Brose / Records Center 
brosej@cityrm.org

RE: Public Records Request – Flock Safety System

Dear Public Records Custodian:

I am requesting all records related to Rolling Meadow’s relationship with Flock Group, Inc. (aka Flock Safety), including:

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