Someone cut down stole every police Flock camera in this Minnesota town

Our Take

BreakThrough News' report on the disappearance of all eight Flock cameras in Winona, Minnesota, plus two more across the river in Buffalo County, Wisconsin, is a striking data point in the growing backlash against automated license plate readers. We're not in the business of cheering property destruction, but we understand why frustration boils over when police quietly wire a small town into a camera network that logs every car, every day, with no warrant and often no public vote.

That's the real story here: these systems don't get installed through open debate. They show up on light poles and bridge approaches, feeding data into a company database that cops nationwide can query. The ACLU's warning about a "nationwide mass surveillance system" isn't hyperbole — it's a description of exactly how Flock's network is built, city by city, county by county, until there's nowhere left to drive without being logged.

Whatever happened to Winona's cameras, the underlying problem doesn't go away — Flock will just send replacements. If you want a legal, lasting way to push back, find out whether your own town is on our camera map and check our take-action page for how to organize against ALPR expansion before it becomes permanent infrastructure.