From tracking ex-romantic partners to searching a former employer, at least two agencies have now forwarded cases of their officers misusing Flock Safety license plate reading technology to county prosecutors for review of possible criminal charges.
The I-Team filed 130 public records requests with local law enforcement agencies across Illinois and Indiana for internal investigation reports into misuse of FLOCK automated license plate reading (ALPR) cameras and others that can track a person's location in real time.
Responses are continuing to come in but have already revealed cases of misuse.
In Prairie Grove, Police Chief Michael Goins said he discovered one of his officers had conducted hundreds of Flock camera searches, but not for any official purpose.
Goins said Officer William Copp was searching "ex-spouses, ex-girlfriends, ex-boyfriends of current girlfriends, people that had some sort of domestic relationship with him... One individual was searched approximately 140 times."
Goins said he acted quickly and Copp was arrested and charged in McHenry County with official misconduct.
Prairie Grove is not alone.
The I-Team found at least 10 examples of local area law enforcement agencies investigating their own officers for misusing Flock and other license plate reading technology.
In Berkeley, Officer Terrance Mastrino was investigated this past July for performing a Flock search back in 2025 of an individual who was his former employer, according to the Berkeley Chief of Police and records reviewed by the I-Team.
According to a Berkeley PD internal investigation report, nearly a year after that Flock search was made, the owner of the license plate searched their plate number on the website "Have I been Flocked?" and saw it had been searched by a Berkeley police officer.
That person approached the police chief to inquire why their plate was searched, and that triggered an audit of the officer's Flock searches.
Five days later, Mastrino resigned, according to a letter released to the I-Team.
In Palos Park, Officer Cohen Piechocinski was accused of conducting eleven unauthorized Flock searches of his personal vehicles, and his Flock privileges were revoked on August 3. The Chief of Police is reviewing possible discipline, according to an internal record released to the I-Team.
And in Channahon, an officer is now under investigation for the alleged unauthorized use of Flock technology. That unnamed officer is now on administrative leave, according to a statement from Channahon Chief of Police Adam Bogart.
For privacy advocates, like Beryl Lipton with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, this was expected after years of warnings over the powerful tools at the disposal of law enforcement.
"Unfortunately, we have seen abuse of automated license plate readers for almost as long as they have existed," Lipton said. "Previously, the systems weren't as connected as they are. Now that abuse can really take place at scale across state lines."
The I-Team previously reported an Itasca officer is now out of the job after a misuse investigation, and another officer in Bloomingdale is on administrative leave with both cases now referred to the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office for further review.
Fearing the potential for abuse of this powerful surveillance technology, a growing number of individuals are taking matters into their own hands, accused of stealing Flock Safety cameras and vandalizing them.
The I-Team was in DuPage County Court this week after three men made their first appearance for allegedly stealing five Flock cameras and vandalizing others in Lisle. That case remains ongoing.
A spokesperson for Flock Safety told the I-Team earlier this month the company has implemented new automatic auditing and safety measures for all its law enforcement clients.
"Earlier this year, we built our audit assistance, or we released an audit assistance tool that automatically flags any suspicious searches to command staff so they can conduct an investigation," said Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel. "If somebody is repetitively searching the same license plate over a period of time, it will automatically flag that."
This week, Republican U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri announced a senate subcommittee is opening an investigation into Flock Safety's cameras, and "what safeguards the company employs to protect Americans' data," according to a letter sent to Flock Safety's CEO released by the Senator's office.
This is the latest development in growing bipartisan pushback against the surveillance technology.