St. Paul to turn off its Flock cameras
The short version: St. Paul is reportedly moving to shut off its Flock ALPR cameras, per KARE 11 — a rare reversal worth watching closely.
Our Take
KARE 11 is reporting that St. Paul, Minnesota's second-largest city, is making moves to power down its Flock Safety cameras. If that holds, it's a genuinely rare event in this fight: cities usually only add more cameras, not switch them off. Credit to KARE 11 for digging into the story — local TV outlets covering ALPR policy shifts is exactly the kind of accountability journalism this issue needs.
We've said it before: once a city stands up a network of automated plate readers, the data-sharing agreements, mission creep, and law enforcement dependency tend to make these systems self-perpetuating. A city actually reversing course — whether from budget pressure, public backlash, privacy audits, or all three — is worth studying closely. It suggests organized pushback works, and that council members can be moved when residents show up and ask hard questions about who's watching, who's storing the data, and who else gets access to it.
If you're in St. Paul or anywhere else with Flock infrastructure nearby, check our camera map to see what's actually deployed in your area, and use our take-action resources if you want to push your own city council toward the same kind of scrutiny that apparently got St. Paul to reconsider.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KARE 11, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.