Crystal, MN City Council Flock/ALPR Work Session 8/18/26 [Part 2 of 2]

Our Take

Credit to the channel FuckBradsLaw for sitting through the tedium of local government so the rest of us don't have to — this second half of the Crystal, MN work session, presented by city staff Pete Underthun and Brian Hubbard, is exactly the kind of unglamorous footage that actually moves the needle on surveillance policy. Work sessions are where councils get sold on Flock before the public hearing, and they're rarely recorded, let alone shared. That's the value here: transparency into the sales pitch itself, not just the eventual vote.

These sessions follow a predictable script nationwide. Staff frame ALPRs as a low-cost, low-controversy tool for solving crime, downplay data retention and sharing questions, and let council members nod along before the public ever gets a real say. The pattern matters because once a network of cameras gets approved in a work session's shadow, unwinding it later is exponentially harder than stopping it before the contract is signed. Crystal residents now have a date — September 2nd — and a real chance to show up before that happens.

If you're in Crystal or anywhere near it, this is the moment to act, not after the cameras go up. Check our camera map to see what's already been deployed near you, and use our take-action resources to figure out how to speak up before your own city council quietly does the same thing.