A former Bloomingdale police officer turned himself in to authorities Friday after a DuPage County grand jury indicted him on charges that he illegally ran searches on an Illinois license plate through two separate law-enforcement surveillance systems. Gino Giovenco, 34, now faces three felony counts of official misconduct and one misdemeanor count of computer tampering.
DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin announced the charges, and the grand jury returned a four-count indictment. According to WGN-TV, the indictment accuses Giovenco of making unauthorized inquiries into an Illinois plate through the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System, known as LEADS, on February 26, 2025, and again on July 2, 2025. A separate count alleges he ran an unauthorized search on a plate through the Flock automated license plate recognition system sometime between January 11 and August 19 of this year.
Giovenco surrendered to authorities Friday and was released on his own recognizance, per the seed announcement from the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office. The charges include three felonies and one misdemeanor.
Case Followed Earlier Internal Review
The charges cap a process that began months earlier, when Bloomingdale officials first disclosed that one of their officers may have misused the department's surveillance tools. As reported by ABC7 Chicago, the village said at the time that the officer may have used the systems for a reason that is not allowed, and that the matter had been referred to the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office for review.
Berlin struck a pointed tone in announcing the indictment, saying misuse of automated license plate reader technology must carry consequences. He said his office will continue working with county law enforcement agencies to uphold high standards of public service. Giammarese said the department plans to work to regain public trust and continue doing police work the right way.
Part of a Wider Pattern Across Illinois
Giovenco's case is not an isolated one. The station's investigative unit found at least 10 examples of local law-enforcement agencies across the Chicago area investigating their own officers for misusing Flock and other license-plate-reading technology, after filing 130 public-records requests with agencies in Illinois and Indiana seeking reports on ALPR misuse.
In Waukegan, officer Oscar Magpali was charged with five counts of official misconduct after city officials said they identified numerous searches involving vehicles registered to department employees and people connected to them, according to CBS Chicago. Magpali was placed on administrative leave after the allegations surfaced and remained on leave while a separate administrative investigation continued alongside the criminal case.
Other cases uncovered by the same investigation describe even more extensive alleged misuse. In McHenry County, Prairie Grove Police Chief Michael Goins said Officer William Copp ran hundreds of Flock searches for personal reasons, including roughly 140 searches of a single individual; Copp was arrested and charged with official misconduct. In west suburban Berkeley, Officer Terrance Mastrino was investigated over a 2025 Flock search of his former employer and resigned five days after the plate's owner contacted the police chief. And in Palos Park, Officer Cohen Piechocinski was accused of 11 unauthorized Flock searches of his own vehicles, with his Flock access revoked in early August.
How Widespread Are These Cameras?
The scrutiny comes as Flock's automated license plate readers have proliferated nationwide. A Pew Research Center analysis said volunteer mappers had listed roughly 110,000 Flock readers in OpenStreetMap as of September 17, 2026, with roughly 80% located in urban areas. The Chicago metropolitan area alone has more than 3,000 of the devices, placing it among the most heavily covered regions in the country alongside Los Angeles and Dallas-Fort Worth.
Flock Safety has pointed to a company tool that automatically flags suspicious searches to command staff so they can investigate, a feature the I-Team's reporting noted amid the string of misuse cases surfacing across the region.
Giovenco is due in court December 28.
