Crystal Police Chief Reflects on Flock Camera Removal #flock #cops #minnesota #camera
The short version: Crystal, Minnesota pulled all six Flock ALPR cameras, and the police chief's reflection is a rare on-record admission that these systems aren't the untouchable public-safety fixtures departments claim.
Our Take
Credit to CCX Media Community News for getting Crystal Police Chief Brian Hubbard on camera talking through the decision to yank all six Flock license plate readers from the city. Most of the time these systems just quietly renew year after year with little public scrutiny, so a chief actually reflecting on removal — rather than expansion — is worth paying attention to.
Every city that walks back a Flock contract chips away at the industry talking point that these networks are simply inevitable infrastructure. Whatever Hubbard's specific reasoning, the fact that a department can operate without blanket plate tracking and say so publicly matters for every city council currently being pitched the same sales deck. Local reversals like this are exactly the kind of precedent residents in neighboring towns should be raising at their own budget hearings.
If you want to know whether your block is already wired into this network, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your city look more like Crystal than the alternative, our take-action page has the tools to push back before the cameras go up, or after.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CCX Media Community News, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.