Saint Paul Ending Contract With #Flock... Why Wasn't It Stopped Before Now?
The short version: Saint Paul is dropping its Flock contract, but North Star Daily's John Lesch interview asks the real question: why do these systems get approved with zero public debate in the first place?
Our Take
Credit to North Star Daily for pulling in former Minnesota lawmaker John Lesch to say the quiet part out loud: police departments routinely roll out ALPRs, drones, and other surveillance gear through budget line items and grant paperwork, not open hearings. By the time anyone outside city hall notices, the cameras are already bolted to poles and feeding data into a nationwide network. Saint Paul ending its Flock contract is good news, but it's also an indictment of a process that let the contract happen without scrutiny for however long it ran.
This is the pattern we track constantly: procurement offices and police chiefs treat mass surveillance purchases like they're buying squad cars, not building a database that logs where every driver in the city goes. Flock's pitch is always the same — solve crimes faster — but the public rarely gets a real conversation about retention periods, who can query the data, or whether out-of-state agencies get access. Saint Paul residents are only getting that conversation now, after the fact, because one former lawmaker is willing to ask uncomfortable questions on camera.
If your city hasn't had this reckoning yet, don't wait for a viral video to force it. Check our camera map to see what's already been installed near you, and use our take-action guide to push your council for a public vote before the next contract renewal sneaks through on a consent agenda.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of North Star Daily, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.