More Minnesota communities part with Flock Cameras after CEO announces changes
The short version: WCCO reports Sherburne County joins a growing list of Minnesota agencies ditching Flock Safety ALPRs after the company's CEO announced policy changes, signaling cracks in the surveillance vendor's local footholds.
Our Take
Credit to WCCO - CBS Minnesota for tracking this story as it unfolds county by county. When a sheriff's office walks away from a surveillance contract, it's rarely because the cameras stopped working — it's because the public pressure, cost, or policy fine print finally became impossible to ignore. Sherburne County joining the list of Minnesota agencies parting ways with Flock is a signal that local officials are starting to read the fine print on data sharing, retention, and who else gets to peek into these camera networks.
Flock's leadership announcing 'changes' in response to backlash is a familiar playbook: promise reform right as scrutiny peaks, hope communities stay put. But the fact that agencies are leaving anyway suggests trust, once broken by revelations about data sharing and mission creep, doesn't come back just because a CEO issues a statement. Minnesota residents pushing their local governments to ask hard questions is exactly the kind of grassroots accountability that keeps blanket license-plate tracking from becoming permanent infrastructure by default.
If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR systems are active near you, check our camera map, and if your community hasn't had this conversation yet, our take-action page has tools to help push it onto the agenda.
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.