Anoka County Doubles Down On Flock Cameras As Other Minnesota Cities Pull The Plug

ANOKA COUNTY, MN — The Anoka County Sheriff's Office is expanding its Flock Safety license plate reader network even as several Minnesota cities tear theirs down, and a recently closed Linwood Township scam case is the sheriff's office's best argument for why.

Deputies say an elderly Linwood Township resident was tricked into paying $14,000 for driveway sealing work that was never finished while an accomplice stole items from his safe.

After neighbors sent in photos of a suspicious vehicle, deputies used Flock cameras to identify it, then tracked it again weeks later once the suspect had left the state. With a warrant, they arrested him in Andover.

That success stands apart from the mood elsewhere in Minnesota, and the country.

Roughly 120,000 Flock automated license plate readers are now under contract with about 7,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, according to the New York Times, and the same debate over privacy and misuse playing out here is happening in cities well beyond Minnesota.

West St. Paul finished removing its Flock cameras this month after a trial run, with City Manager Nate Burkett saying the technology was "not yet" trusted enough to keep, even though a department review found no misuse.

Backlash has hit more than a dozen Minnesota communities, with Columbia Heights, Sherburne County, Isanti County, Brooklyn Park and Shorewood also ending or pausing their use of the cameras, according to the Star Tribune.

St. Paul could be next. The City Council was set to take up a resolution Wednesday from Council President Rebecca Noecker calling on the city and Ramsey County to end their Flock contracts, KSTP reported.

Anoka County is headed the other way. Sheriff Brad Wise signed a one-year, $174,999 Flock contract this summer, a dollar under the threshold that would have required County Board approval, to roughly double the county's cameras and add drones, according to Sahan Journal.