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.
The impact of Flock isn’t abstract. It has real consequences for safety, peace of mind, and our ability to live normal lives without feeling watched.
So I want to put a question directly to this council and to City leadership: Do you think something like this can happen in our community? The truth is it already has. Rolling Meadows shares its cameras with Prairie Grove. Rolling Meadows opted to share our citizens movements with Prairie Grove. When Copp stalked his victims, we supported his crime. In fact, Copp and Prairie Grove searched our city 1,511 times over the past year, all with zero oversight.
At the May council meeting, City Manager Rob Sabo led the council to believe that each search was reviewed by the city. If that were true, then the department would have noticed his hundreds of searches for the same plates—over and over, at all hours of the day and night—especially given Copp’s claim that he needed it for “training” purposes. In fact, Rolling Meadows Police Department Policy 447.17 requires a written request to share this data, review and approval by the department, and the record of this approval to be retained on file. Yet that process was not followed in this case. I want an investigation into why in this case, stalking was allowed and why the department ignored its own policy in allowing it.
The problem isn’t only that these searches occurred. The problem is that there is a repeated pattern where safeguards and oversight are being ignored. With more than a 5 minute public comment period, I can show a repeated pattern of misuse. A prosecutor will be able to do this as well. When there is a repeated pattern, and the council does not act, it opens the city to financial liability, damage to public trust and legitimacy, and lawsuits.
City staff has claimed that these systems are being used to keep the community safe. Yet the department can’t produce reports or documentation showing that the system has helped solve crime. Well, now we know of at least one alleged crime that these systems were used to commit.
Dozens of people have signed our petition at RMnoFlock.com. This is a place for community members and their advocates to organize around legal, political, and legislative actions and educate the public about the invasion of privacy created by Flock and the city’s other surveillance tools.
We’ve been listening to residents, and many have the same frustration: people don’t accept the idea that their daily movements can be turned into a searchable trail by systems they can’t see, can’t control, and can’t fully understand—especially when oversight is described to the public but, based on these allegations, clearly didn’t prevent harm.
Residents, media inquiries and privacy advocates can find our contact information in the ‘About’ section of the site. See our demands and sign the petition at RMnoFlock.com.
We’re asking you to take 3 real steps tonight:
1) Stop paying Flock. By voting to ratify new business item L, you are approving 3 invoices to Flock after learning of Copp’s alleged crimes and the department’s violation of it’s own policy in handling this data.
2) Conduct an independent investigation to verify my claims tonight.
3) Add an agenda topic so the Council and public can learn what we’ve discovered but can’t share in a five-minute public comment period.
Mayor and Council members, I’m asking you to protect our residents. Please use this moment to stop pretending these systems are inevitable and for the good of your citizens. For the sake of these victims, demand an investigation, put us on the agenda, take the time to understand how these cameras we’ve invited into our community work, and then decide for yourself if these cameras are an asset or a liability to the community.
Thank you.