Official misconduct charges have been filed against the Holiday Hills police chief accused of unlawfully using Flock license plate readers and a law enforcement database to contact and track people he knew, according to McHenry County jail records and county officials.
William Copp, 54, of Crystal Lake, was also a part-time police officer in Prairie Grove, and has since been fired, Prairie Grove Police officials said in a news release.
Copp is charged with two counts of official misconduct, a Class 3 felony, according to the criminal complaint filed in the McHenry County court.
At his first court appearance Thursday Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Miller said Copp “made a number of unauthorized searches” using Prairie Grove’s Flock license plate reader and the Illinois State Police LEADS database system. Copp used these law-enforcement tools to track six different people “he is connected with personally” while working and during his time off, Miller said.
Three were women Copp had been in romantic relationships with; another was an ex-boyfriend of one of the women who he’d tracked during 2025, Miller said.
Copp used the Flock license plate readers to track the ex-boyfriend 140 times, 86 of those alleged uses occurred was while Copp was off duty, prosecutors said. Copp also allegedly called the man and told him to have no contact with a woman with whom they both been romantically involved.
According to the criminal complaints, the alleged forbidden use of the law enforcement tools for personal purposes occurred between Feb. 26, 2024, and Nov. 5, 2025.
Copp was allowed to be released while he awaits trial on the felony charges. Miller asked for special conditions to be imposed on Copp during his release, including he have no contact with these six people. One woman, present in the courtroom, said she did not want to be named in the no-contact order, which was granted.
Judge Michael Feetterer ordered that Copp turn over all firearms and not work as a police officer for any department while the case is pending. He is not to go on the property of Holiday Hills or Prairie Grove police departments. He also was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation.
Prairie Grove police issued a news release early Thursday afternoon, saying Copp was arrested on a warrant Wednesday morning during a traffic stop conducted by other Prairie Grove officers. The warrant is from an investigation that started in November into Copp for “alleged misuse of police databases,” according to the release.
“The investigation determined that Copp conducted numerous searches unrelated to any official law enforcement investigation and allegedly performed them for personal purposes,” officials said in the release. “The databases involved included the Illinois State Police LEADS database and an automated license plate reader system.”
Copp, who was employed part-time at the Prairie Grove Police Department since 2023, was put on administrative leave on Nov. 5, Prairie Grove Police Chief Michael Goins said. Copp was later terminated from the department on May 8.
Feetterer ordered that Copp turn over all of his police equipment to both departments. Copp said he’d returned the Prairie Grove items but needed time to contact Holiday Hills, a part-time police department.
Late Thursday afternoon, Holiday Hills village attorney Jennifer Gibson responded to requests for comment from Shaw Local. In an email, Gibsons wrote that the village is “surprised by the charges and has limited information about the charges because they appear to relate to his former employment” with Prairie Grove.
Gibson continued: “As far as Holiday Hills is aware, the charges relate to alleged conduct that occurred while working for Prairie Grove. We are in the process of gathering information.”
She did not address Copp’s employment status with Holiday Hills, so it’s unclear if Copp remains police chief in Holiday Hills, months after he was placed on leave from Prairie Grove and weeks after Prairie Grove fired him. As of Thursday, Copp was still listed as police chief on Holiday Hills’ website.
Early this year, a man sought an order of protection against Copp, claiming that Copp had looked up the man’s license plate using a license plate reader system 178 times between September and January, court records show.
The man’s request for an order of protection against Copp was denied. However, prosecutors in court Thursday indicated the man who sought the protective order was one of the people Copp is accused in the criminal case of improperly searching in the database and tracking through the license plate reader.
The requested order of protection also claimed that Copp left “a threatening voicemail” on the man’s phone in September “stating to no longer be in contact with my ex girlfriend who was his ex girlfriend and he stated ‘this is the only time that I’m going to be nice about this.’”
The man also said Copp “is stalking my whereabouts through my license plate. I fear for my safety.”
The man also claimed in the petition filed in January that an investigator had gotten in contact with him.
A hearing for the order of protection case is set for June 30, according to court records.
The village of Holiday Hills has a part-time police department made up of six officers, two sergeants and the chief, according to the village’s website, which also says that 911 calls “are dispatched through the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff Robb Tadelman said Thursday in an email to Shaw Local that his office “had no involvement in this investigation.”
He added: “As this is an active criminal matter being handled outside of our agency, we will not be commenting on the facts, allegations, or merits of the case.”