But recently, some cities are reversing course and either taking down or shutting off their cameras.
Brooklyn Park ended its contract with Flock Safety, a primary supplier of license plate readers, amid some data sharing concerns. The Shorewood City Council decided to shut off its camera as some residents and council members criticized how information could be accessed and used. Other cities, including Champlin, plan to discuss their use of the cameras after residents raised privacy concerns.
The debate over the cameras, the surveillance infrastructure they create and who has access to the data has intensified since the major federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota this year.
City officials across the country are having second thoughts, too. More cities nationwide have deactivated Flock cameras, with some officials saying they learned their data was being shared more widely, and with more out-of-state agencies, than they realized. Some cities in Washington, for example, ditched the technology after a report found federal immigration enforcement agencies had searched some Flock databases, often without cities’ consent.
Paris Lewbel, a spokesperson for Flock Safety, said in an email that the company’s customers own the data captured by their cameras. Data sharing is off by default, but local law enforcement can choose which other agencies to share information with.
Each search of Flock data is logged in an audit trail and requires an agency to provide a reason for accessing the information, Lewbel said. Data is automatically deleted after 30 days by default.
“On federal immigration enforcement: Flock does not have contracts with ICE or any sub-agency of [the Department of Homeland Security], and there is no backdoor access to our systems," Lewbel said.
The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office began contracting with Flock in 2023 and has 10 license plate readers posted across the county.
Spokesperson Tierney Peters said at the end of January that the sheriff’s office implemented Flock’s new filtering feature allowing the agency to remove data from any search if the justification appears related to immigration.
The sheriff’s office does not have any sharing agreements with federal agencies, she said.
Many law enforcement officers embrace the automated license plate reader technology, saying that it has helped solve a variety of crimes, including high-profile cases.
Champlin Police used a license plate reader after Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were shot in their home, Police Chief Glen Schneider said. A massive manhunt ensued as police searched for the suspected shooter, who is also accused of murdering House DFL leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman.
The technology scans license plates and the make of cars, which police can use to track vehicles. Agencies across the state credit the cameras with helping solve child abduction and missing person cases, homicides and other major crimes.
But critics worry about the technology creating a network of sensitive personal information, a fear that spiked following the surge in federal immigration enforcement. Some residents across the Twin Cities asked suburbs to turn off Flock cameras during the height of the ICE surge.
Minnesota lawmakers in March debated a proposed bill that would add more safeguards, such as ensuring license plate reader data is not accessed or shared outside of the state unless required by a judicial warrant.
Shorewood City Council members decided to shut off their lone license plate reader until an audit of the data is completed, so officials can confirm how and with whom information is being shared.
Trevor Chandler, director of public affairs for Flock Safety, told the council at a March meeting that across the country, some law enforcement agencies have unintentionally turned on statewide sharing or allowed other access to their data by accident. He said Flock has acknowledged the company can be better at training agencies on their system and has started mandating that agencies comply with state laws.
He said federal agencies no longer have access to nationwide or statewide lookup features, and will have access to data only as part of explicit agreements with other agencies.
Brooklyn Park Deputy Chief Elliot Faust said the technology has automated the often arduous process of officers manually entering license plates and hoping for a result. And he said it helps address a common gripe among police, that agencies do not coordinate enough.
“We know criminals don’t just stay in the city of Brooklyn Park. They move around. Crime is regionalized,” Faust said. “It makes sense for agencies to communicate data to one another.”
But Faust said the department let its $24,000 Flock contract expire because of customer service complaints, as well as a concern over a few instances where other agencies were not always following state statute.
Minnesota law requires agencies accessing license plate reader data to provide a case number and reasonable suspicion that the data is relevant to an active criminal investigation, but he said agencies were not always doing so.
He said Brooklyn Park is now contracting with Axon, the same company that provides its body cameras, for license plate readers — without the data sharing function.
Faust said the technology is enhancing public safety, but said agencies need to hold themselves accountable for how it’s being used.
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