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MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | Plymouth Ends Flock Camera Program as Privacy Concerns Overcome Police-Safety Arguments
PLYMOUTH, MN (September 24, 2026). The Plymouth City Council has voted to discontinue the city’s automated license-plate reader program, making the Northwest Metro community the latest Minnesota jurisdiction to withdraw from Flock Safety amid mounting questions about surveillance, data access and public trust.
Council members voted Tuesday to stop using all 16 permanent Flock cameras operating in Plymouth. Mayor Jeffry Wosje cast the only dissenting vote.
Flock cameras photograph passing vehicles and use automated technology to identify license plates, vehicle makes and models, and visible characteristics such as damage, decals or bicycle racks. Police departments can search the accumulated information while investigating crimes or attempting to locate vehicles.
Plymouth first authorized automated license-plate readers in 2023. Police officials told the council that the system had assisted several investigations, including the detention of suspects following a drive-by shooting and the search for a domestic-assault suspect.
Council members did not dispute that the cameras had legitimate law-enforcement value. Their concerns centered on whether the city could control how the information might eventually be accessed or used outside Plymouth.
A Minnesota Star Tribune investigation previously found that federal authorities had obtained Flock information through relationships with Minnesota law-enforcement agencies for civil immigration enforcement, even though state law restricts the data’s use to criminal investigations. A separate Washington Post investigation identified at least 50 officers around the country who had been accused of misusing Flock information.
Plymouth police said the department had not shared its camera information with federal agencies. The department had also restricted sharing with other police agencies.
Council Member Joel Spoonheim said the cameras could save lives when used properly by Plymouth officers, but the city could not guarantee that people outside the department would observe the same ethical standards.
Concerns about outside access carried additional weight because Plymouth was among the Minnesota communities whose water systems were targeted in a July cyberattack.
Wosje argued that the cameras remained a valuable public-safety resource and that negative attention surrounding Flock should not deprive officers of an investigative tool they had used effectively.
Plymouth now joins more than a dozen Minnesota jurisdictions that have paused or ended Flock programs, including Saint Paul, Duluth and Sherburne County.
The vote adds momentum to calls for statewide rules governing automated license-plate readers. Minnesota currently lacks a comprehensive framework establishing consistent requirements for retention periods, outside-agency searches, audits, immigration enforcement and public reporting.
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