Ramsey County Sheriff defends Flock cameras

Our Take

FOX 9's segment captures the fight happening in cities everywhere: a sheriff insisting the cameras are indispensable for solving crime, while an elected official who actually answers to voters wants out. Sheriff Bob Fletcher's defense leans on the same talking points law enforcement always reaches for — cleared cases, officer safety, "nothing to hide" logic — while sidestepping the harder questions about who else gets access to that data, how long it's retained, and what happens when a network like Flock stretches across county lines without a single public vote on it.

That's the real story here. St. Paul's council president isn't some fringe activist; she's a city leader who looked at the surveillance infrastructure her constituents are paying for and decided the tradeoff isn't worth it. When local government pushes back against a sheriff's department that wants to keep scanning every car that passes a reader, it's worth paying attention to — because most places never even get that debate. The cameras just go up.

Credit to FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul for putting both sides on camera instead of running a press-release version of the story. If you want to see how far this network already reaches near you, check our camera map, and if St. Paul's pushback inspires you to raise the same questions in your own city council, our take-action guide walks you through it.