Flock & ALPR Cameras in Crystal, Minnesota
Volunteers have reported 2 automated license plate readers in and around Crystal — cameras that log every passing plate with a time and location.
On the record · Contract Canceled
Crystal is on the record here. FOX 9 reported September 9, 2026 that Crystal Police Chief Brian Hubbard said the department is ending Flock entirely. All six cameras were physically removed and are being returned. The department also turned off data sharing with other agencies for the remaining retention period. CBS Minnesota reported the same decision September 10. Minnesota Crystal, not Crystal Lake or another Crystal.
Jurisdiction · by recorded street address
The 2 cameras counted on this page are every reader mapped within about 20 kilometres of Crystal, so the count crosses municipal lines. By the street address recorded for each one, 1 of them sits inside Crystal itself.
The rest sit in New Hope (1).
Source: community-mapped camera data (OpenStreetMap, ODbL), with addresses resolved by Nominatim.
Need this city’s camera data? Custom extracts are free for researchers, journalists and advocates. Ask for it.
No new reports near Crystal in the last 30 days — checked hourly, last checked Oct 7, 13:26 UTC. Cameras only get on the map when someone looks: be the one.
Where the cameras are in Crystal
The readers mapped around Crystal break down as 3 Flock Safety. The first camera here was reported in Sep 2025; the most recent in Jan 2026.
- 36th Avenue North — 2 readers
- 42nd Avenue North — 1 reader
Crystal MN PD and the sharing network
Per Flock’s own transparency portal, Crystal MN PD appears in the sharing network with connections to 25 other agencies.
Crystal in the Hennepin County picture
Hennepin County has 486 reported cameras county-wide and ranks #776 of 3,222 U.S. counties for cameras per resident. That’s across 1,268,903 residents and 3,422 road miles. By road density that is 0.14 cameras per road mile, in the top 2.8% of counties nationally.
Where contributors recorded what a camera watches, the split here is 1 street, 1 traffic.
What’s watching Crystal
These aren’t red-light cameras. Automated license plate readers like Flock Safety’s photograph every plate that passes, log the time and place, and store it in a searchable database that’s often shared far beyond Crystal — here’s where that data goes. Counts cover cameras reported closest to Crystal (within ~20 km), so nearby towns share the same corridors. Spot one that’s missing? Report it on DeFlock.
The latest around Crystal
- Crystal removes Flock cameras after residents raise concerns
- Crystal becomes latest city to end flock camera use amid privacy concerns
- Crystal Police Yank All Six Flock Cameras as Privacy Backlash Sweeps Minnesota
- Crystal police take down Flock cameras after residents express privacy concerns
What you can do in Crystal
Ask who approved these cameras, how long plate data is kept, and who it’s shared with. File a public records request, raise it at a council meeting, and see the full playbook on Take Action. Fighting this locally? Join or start a chapter and we’ll amplify you.
Not sure what one looks like? See photographs of installed cameras before you go looking.
Cameras near Crystal
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Camera reports: the open-source DeFlock project. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY).