City Council 05 12 2026
The short version: A routine East Grand Forks council work session is exactly where ALPR contracts get quietly approved, so residents should pay attention before cameras go up.
Our Take
Credit to the City of East Grand Forks for at least recording and posting its work sessions — a lot of towns don't bother. But let's be honest about what a "work session" agenda item really means: this is the low-visibility stage where staff float a Flock Safety pitch, council members ask a few softball questions, and a multi-year surveillance contract gets greenlit before most residents even know it's on the table. No public comment, no headlines, just a line item.
We don't have the full transcript here, and we're not going to pretend we do. But the pattern across dozens of small and mid-size cities is remarkably consistent: a vendor demo framed around "solving crime," vague assurances about data retention, and almost no discussion of who else gets access to the license plate reads once they're in the system — tow companies, federal agencies, other police departments hundreds of miles away. If East Grand Forks is moving toward ALPR cameras, residents deserve real answers on retention periods, audit logs, and whether the council will revisit this before the contract auto-renews.
If you live in or around East Grand Forks, now's the time to show up, FOIA the contract, and ask your council members direct questions — not after the poles go up. Check our camera map to see what's already deployed near you, and use our take-action guide to push back before a work-session line item becomes a permanent fixture on your street corner.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of City of East Grand Forks, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.