3 Minnesota law enforcement agencies report tampering with Flock cameras
The short version: WCCO reports three Minnesota agencies say residents are tampering with Flock ALPR cameras, a sign of growing public pushback against unaccountable surveillance.
Our Take
WCCO's Ubah Ali reports that law enforcement in three Minnesota jurisdictions are now logging incidents of people messing with Flock cameras — spray paint, bags, bent brackets, the usual guerrilla toolkit. Police frame this as vandalism against a helpful crime-fighting tool. We'd frame it differently: it's what happens when a community discovers it's been quietly wired into a statewide license-plate dragnet without a vote, a hearing, or even basic signage explaining what's being logged and for how long.
Notice what's missing from these local news segments: any mention of retention policies, who else can query the data, or whether ICE, out-of-state agencies, or private Flock partners have access. Departments love to call these cameras 'an extra set of eyes,' but eyes that never blink, never forget, and share their notes with unknown third parties aren't neutral infrastructure — they're a permanent record of everywhere you drive, built without your consent.
Tampering isn't a strategy we're pushing, but the fact that ordinary Minnesotans are frustrated enough to risk a criminal charge over a traffic camera should tell agencies something about the consent they never actually got. Check our map to see if Flock has already landed in your city, and hit take action for legal ways to push back before your council rubber-stamps the next contract.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WCCO - CBS Minnesota, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.