Minnesota police face growing license plate camera vandalism
The short version: FOX 9 reports Flock cameras getting torched and stolen across Minnesota suburbs, a sign that quiet frustration with ALPR surveillance is turning into direct action.
Our Take
FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul is documenting something we've been tracking for a while: the growing number of Flock Safety cameras getting vandalized or ripped out of the ground in cities like Edina and Plymouth. Credit to their newsroom for putting a local spotlight on a story that police departments would rather keep quiet, since every torched camera is an admission that these systems were installed without much public buy-in in the first place.
Law enforcement will frame this as simple property crime, and sure, destroying equipment isn't something we're cheering for. But it's worth asking why residents feel like smashing a pole is their only recourse. Most people never got a vote on whether a camera tracking every car that passes their house belongs on their street. When city councils quietly approve Flock contracts and PDs treat the data as untouchable, vandalism becomes the loudest form of public comment available.
If you want to know whether one of these cameras is already watching your commute, check our map before you find out the hard way. And if you'd rather fight back with a public records request or a city council speech instead of a crowbar, our take-action page has the tools to do it legally — and more permanently.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.