Are Flock Cameras Legal in Minnesota? Yes, within the rules below. Flock’s license plate readers are lawful to operate in every state; the real question — the one this page answers — is what rules Minnesota puts on them: how long your plate data can be kept, who can search it, whether a warrant is needed, and what rights you have to see the record.
The rules exist, they have teeth, and knowing them is the difference between guessing and acting. All details are for general guidance, verified against Minnesota sources as of September 2026.
In This Minnesota Guide:
Are Flock Cameras Legal in Minnesota? The Short Answer
YES — Minnesota is one of the states that DOES have an ALPR-specific statute. Minn. Stat. § 13.824 (“Automated License Plate Readers”), enacted 2015 (Laws 2015, ch. 67, sec. 3), inside the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Chapter 13). It governs any ALPR operated by or for a Minnesota law enforcement agency, including Flock Safety cameras.
No agency may use an ALPR at all without first adopting a written ALPR policy. As of September 2026 the 2015 statute is still the operative law — the 2026 bills that would have tightened it did not pass.
Minnesota has state law AND heavy local control, because § 13.824 requires every agency to adopt its own written ALPR policy before switching a camera on, and lets cities go stricter than the 60-day ceiling. That has produced a patchwork that changed fast in 2026: Fridley restricted its camera network to Minnesota agencies only in February 2026 and later blocked immigration-purpose searches after the Star Tribune reporting; Hopkins and other Twin Cities suburbs adopted bans on immigration searches in July 2026; Columbia Heights voted in June 2026 to end its Flock contract; West St.
Paul suspended its contract and removed cameras per a city manager statement on August 10, 2026; Duluth declined to renew; Brooklyn Park, Shorewood and Isanti County ended or paused use. Meanwhile many agencies — including Anoka County and numerous suburbs profiled in August 2026 — kept their cameras. Practical takeaway for a Minnesota driver: the retention period, whether out-of-state agencies can see your plate, and whether immigration searches are blocked all depend on which city’s camera photographed you.
What Minnesota Law Actually Requires
| Question | Rule in Minnesota |
|---|---|
| ALPR statute | YES — Minnesota is one of the states that DOES have an ALPR-specific statute. Minn. Stat. § 13.824 (“Automated License Plate Readers”), enacted 2015 (Laws 2015, ch. 67, sec. 3), inside the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Chapter 13). It governs any ALPR operated by or for a Minnesota law enforcement agency, including Flock Safety cameras. No agency may use an ALPR at all without first adopting a written ALPR policy. As of September 2026 the 2015 statute is still the operative law — the 2026 bills that would have tightened it did not pass. |
| Data retention | 60 days by statute. Under § 13.824, subd. 2, ALPR data NOT related to an active criminal investigation must be destroyed no later than 60 days from collection unless another law says otherwise. Inactive criminal investigative data is destroyed per the retention schedule under § 138.17. Two overrides: (1) on written request of a Safe at Home program participant (Chapter 5B), ALPR data on that person must be destroyed at collection or on receipt of the request, whichever is later, unless it is active criminal investigative data; (2) on written request from a person who is the subject of a criminal investigation asserting the data may be exculpatory, the data must be kept until the criminal matter is resolved. Note the practical gap: Minnesota’s legal ceiling is 60 days, but Flock’s product default was 30 days and in August 2026 Flock cut its *recommended* retention to 7 days — a vendor recommendation, not Minnesota law. Individual Minnesota cities may and do set shorter periods by local policy; 60 days is the maximum, not a floor. |
| Who can search | Only law enforcement, and only for a legitimate, specified and documented law enforcement purpose. § 13.824, subd. 2, bars using an ALPR to monitor or track an individual who is the subject of an active criminal investigation unless authorized by a warrant issued on probable cause, or unless exigent circumstances justify going without one. For querying stored ALPR data, the operative standard in the statute and in the Minnesota Data Practices Office’s model policy is a documented law enforcement purpose supported by reasonable suspicion that the data are pertinent to an active criminal investigation, with the factual basis and a case number recorded. Civilians, private companies and non-law-enforcement government staff have no access — stored ALPR data is classified private or nonpublic data on individuals unless it falls into a public category under § 13.82, subds. 2, 3 or 6. |
| Immigration use | NONE at the state-statute level — Minnesota has no ALPR provision that names immigration enforcement. The restriction is indirect: because § 13.824, subd. 2 forbids sharing or disseminating ALPR data not related to an active criminal investigation, and civil immigration enforcement is not a criminal investigation, civil-immigration lookups are widely argued to be unlawful under existing law — but the statute does not say so in words, and that gap is exactly what the failed 2026 bills tried to close. What exists instead is local: after the July 20, 2026 Star Tribune investigation showed hundreds of immigration-purpose searches of Twin Cities camera data during the federal “Operation Metro Surge,” Fridley (the largest access point, with outside agencies running more than 390,000 searches on its cameras in a single month before it cut access to Minnesota agencies only in February 2026), Hopkins and other suburbs blocked immigration-related searches by policy. Statewide, more than 4,000 lookups were run at federal request for immigration purposes. Drivers should assume the rule in their own city is a city council/police policy, not a state law. |
| Data sharing | § 13.824, subd. 2 — ALPR data not related to an active criminal investigation may not be shared with, disseminated to, sold to, or traded with any other individual or entity unless explicitly authorized by that subdivision or other law. Sharing with other law enforcement agencies is permitted when tied to an active criminal investigation; the statute does not, however, geofence sharing to Minnesota, which is why out-of-state and federal agencies were able to query Minnesota-hosted Flock networks. A statewide central repository of ALPR data is prohibited unless explicitly authorized by law, and ALPR reads may only be matched against the Minnesota license plate data file unless the additional data source relates to an active criminal investigation. |
| Search audits | YES — Minnesota is unusually strong here. § 13.824, subd. 3: agencies must maintain a data audit trail recording all queries and responses and every action in which ALPR data is entered, updated, accessed, shared or disseminated. § 13.824, subd. 4: agencies must arrange for an INDEPENDENT BIENNIAL AUDIT of ALPR records to determine how the data are classified and used, whether data are destroyed as required, and whether access rules were followed. A report summarizing each audit must go to the Commissioner of Administration, to the chairs and ranking minority members of the House and Senate committees with data practices and public safety jurisdiction, and to the Legislative Commission on Data Practices and Personal Data Privacy, within 30 days of completing the audit. If the Commissioner of Administration believes an agency is out of compliance, the Commissioner may order additional independent audits. Those biennial audit reports are public documents — a driver or reporter may request the audit for any specific department. |
The retention number is the one to watch. Flock’s national default is 30 days; some states now force shorter windows by statute, and where Minnesota law is silent, the local contract decides. When people ask “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota,” the retention and search rules above are usually what they actually need to know.
Misuse penalties: Minn. Stat. § 13.09 — any person who willfully violates Chapter 13, including knowingly gaining access to not-public data, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to 90 days in jail; for a public employee, a willful violation is also just cause for suspension without pay or dismissal.
Minn. Stat. § 13.08 — a government entity that violates the chapter is civilly liable to a person who suffers damages, plus costs and reasonable attorney fees; for a willful violation the entity is additionally liable for exemplary damages of not less than $1,000 and not more than $15,000 per violation.
Officers who query ALPR systems for personal reasons (the recurring national pattern is looking up exes and acquaintances) face those penalties plus POST-board license discipline and the agency’s own discipline. The statute carries no separate ALPR-specific criminal penalty beyond these Chapter 13 remedies.
Your Rights: Seeing What Minnesota Has on Your Plate
Knowing whether are flock cameras legal in Minnesota is only half the question — the other half is what you can see about your own plate. Use the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. Submit a data subject request under Minn. Stat. § 13.04, subd. 3, in writing to the “responsible authority” (usually the city clerk, police records unit, or data practices designee) of the specific police department or sheriff’s office that runs the cameras — Minnesota has no central ALPR repository, so you may be able to get records only agency by agency, and you generally have to ask each city separately.
Ask for (a) all ALPR data on your plate, (b) the audit-trail entries under § 13.824, subd. 3 showing who queried your plate, when, and the stated purpose and case number, and (c) the agency’s most recent biennial ALPR audit and its written ALPR policy.
Include your plate number and a date range; if the data was not tied to an active investigation it may already be destroyed under the 60-day rule, so many drivers move quickly. Guidance and complaint intake: Minnesota Department of Administration, Data Practices Office, https://mn.gov/admin/data-practices/ (they publish an ALPR-specific page and collect the biennial ALPR audits).
If an agency refuses, you may request a nonbinding advisory opinion from the Commissioner of Administration under § 13.072, or file in district court under § 13.08. Check with the agency and, if it goes to court, with your court.
A records request is the single most useful lawful move for a driver asking are flock cameras legal in Minnesota: it is free or cheap, it forces the agency to state its rules on paper, and the answers feed every other channel — council testimony, comments on pending bills, or a lawyer if the logs show misuse. If a camera-based citation is the concern, the Flock camera ticket guide for Minnesota covers that side.
The bills and rulings below are what will change the answer to are flock cameras legal in Minnesota next — each item is dated, and this section is refreshed as they move.
Minnesota ALPR Bills and Rulings in Motion
HF 4205 (Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee) — introduced March 12, 2026, referred to the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee; heard in committee in March 2026 and STALLED on a 7-7 tie vote, with Republicans voting no. SF 4739 (Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul) — referred to the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on March 23, 2026; did not pass.
Both would have centralized ALPR data with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, barred access or sharing outside Minnesota (including federal agencies, other states and private entities) absent a court order or judicial warrant, required prominently posted signs telling drivers an ALPR system is in use, and created a new consumer data protection law covering private-entity ALPR use.
On August 21, 2026, Tabke and Oumou Verbeten publicly announced they will reintroduce the Flock/ALPR legislation in the 2027 session. Nothing passed in 2026 — § 13.824 as written in 2015 remains the law.
Where communities have pushed back, it shows up here: cancellations, lawsuits, and documented cases — the practical backdrop to are flock cameras legal in Minnesota, reported as cases and charges only.
The Backlash in Minnesota: Cancellations, Lawsuits & Cases
February 2026 — Fridley PD restricted its Flock network to Minnesota agencies only after outside agencies ran more than 390,000 searches against its cameras in a single month. June 2026 — Columbia Heights City Council voted to terminate its Flock Safety contract over privacy concerns.
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July 2026 — Star Tribune investigation published July 20, 2026 documented hundreds of immigration-purpose searches of Twin Cities ALPR data during the federal Operation Metro Surge and more than 4,000 federal-request immigration lookups statewide; Fridley, Hopkins and other suburbs responded within days by banning immigration-related searches.
July 2026 — more than 20 jurisdictions nationally moved to cancel Flock contracts, the highest single month recorded by the DeFlock tracking project.
July 2026 — camera thefts and vandalism reported across Minnesota: all eight Winona cameras were taken off their poles, six incidents in Edina, plus reports in Duluth and Eden Prairie; a Faribault man was ARRESTED July 28, 2026 and charged with stealing a Flock camera, appearing in court the next day and released on his own recognizance ahead of an October 7, 2026 hearing — the only reported Minnesota arrest, and the case was still pending as of this writing.
Damaging or taking a camera is a chargeable property crime in Minnesota and carries real criminal exposure; it is not a lawful way to object. August 10, 2026 — West St. Paul suspended its Flock contract and removed cameras. Mid-2026 — Brooklyn Park, Duluth, Shorewood and Isanti County ended or paused Flock use.
What Flock and Other Vendors Are Saying
August 14, 2026 — Flock Safety publicly announced product changes in response to the national and Minnesota backlash: it cut its RECOMMENDED data retention period from 30 days to 7 days (a recommendation to customers, not a legal requirement, and well under Minnesota’s 60-day statutory ceiling); it added offense-based search filtering so one city can permit another city to search its cameras only for categories such as stolen vehicles, missing persons or violent crime while blocking immigration-enforcement searches; it said it will require all law enforcement customers to enable an anomalous-activity detection feature flagging unusual searches for review by the end of 2026; and it will require case codes for all law enforcement searches, with an emergency bypass.
Flock has also stated its general legal position, echoed by courts nationally, that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in the exterior of a vehicle or its government-issued plate displayed in public. No separate Axon or Motorola Solutions statement directed specifically at Minnesota was verified — UNVERIFIED.
Key Takeaways: Are Flock Cameras Legal in Minnesota
- Start with the statute question: the honest answer to “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota” begins with whether Minnesota has any ALPR law at all — and where it does not, vendor defaults and local contracts are the only rules.
- Retention is the number that matters: when drivers ask “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota”, what they usually need is how long a plate read is kept and who can search it, both covered in the table above.
- Your city may answer differently than your state: because local policy fills the gap, “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota” can have one answer in one town and another across the line.
- A records request is the lawful lever: for anyone asking “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota”, the search logs and the written policy are obtainable under the public-records law, and they are what changes council votes.
- Bills move monthly: the dated sections above are refreshed because the answer to “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota” is being rewritten in real time by legislation and court rulings.
- Cancellations are facts, not rumors: the backlash section records which Minnesota communities have ended contracts and why — the practical backdrop to “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota”.
- Damaging a camera is a crime: the lawful channels are the ones that work, and the cases above show the charges that follow the other route.
- Check the date on everything: including this page — the verification date is printed above, because “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota” is a moving answer.
- Vendor statements are not law: a company’s retention promise can change by press release; “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota” is answered by statute and contract, which is why both are quoted above.
- Sharing is the quiet issue: a plate read in Minnesota can be searchable by agencies elsewhere by default, and “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota” includes whether the local contract turned that off.
Bottom line on are flock cameras legal in Minnesota: confirm the current rule at the official sources below, keep every notice and envelope, and treat the dated sections of this page as the record of what changed and when.
Minnesota FAQ: Are Flock Cameras Legal in Minnesota
Can I find out if police searched my plate in Minnesota?
Often, yes. ALPR search logs are records, and public-records laws reach many of them — the request path in the rights section above is the route. Some state statutes require agencies to keep audit logs precisely so this question is answerable. Expect exemptions for active investigations, but the policy, the retention schedule, and aggregate search data are routinely producible.
Do Flock cameras use facial recognition?
No — the cameras photograph vehicles and plates, not faces, and the company states the system does not identify drivers or passengers. The privacy concern is different and real: a network of timestamped plate captures builds a movement history of your vehicle, which is why retention limits and search rules are where every serious legal fight is happening.
Is it illegal to block or damage a Flock camera in Minnesota?
Damaging one is criminal property destruction — and prosecutions are real: vandalism cases around the country in 2026 have drawn felony charges, including over a police decoy camera. Blocking or obscuring one on public land can also draw obstruction or tampering charges depending on state law. The lawful channels — records requests, council testimony, pending bills — are covered above, and they are the ones actually cancelling contracts.
Why the Answer to “Are Flock Cameras Legal in Minnesota?” Keeps Changing
ALPR law is the rare corner of traffic law being written in real time. The cameras spread faster than legislatures could react, so the first rules were whatever the vendor’s defaults and each city’s contract said. Now the statutes are arriving — retention caps, search standards, immigration-use bans, audit duties — and every session moves the line somewhere. A page that answered “are flock cameras legal in Minnesota” correctly last year can be wrong this year.
The fights driving it are concrete: officers caught running personal searches, federal agencies reaching into local data, cities discovering their contracts allowed sharing they never intended. Each scandal produces a bill; each bill resets the rules. That is why the dated sections on this page exist and get refreshed — the statute table is the stable part, and everything else is a moving front.
For a driver, the takeaway is to check the date on anything you read about are flock cameras legal in Minnesota — including this page, which is why its verification date is printed above — and to anchor on the statute citations, which are the one part of this fight that is always checkable at the source.
Official Minnesota Sources & Resources
- Minnesota Legislature: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/13.824
- Minnesota DMV: https://www.ag.state.mn.us/
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: nhtsa.gov
- Cornell Legal Information Institute: law.cornell.edu/wex
Statute reference: Minn. Stat. § 13.824 (Automated License Plate Readers), enacted by Laws 2015, ch. 67, sec. 3; related penalties at Minn. Stat. §§ 13.08 and 13.09; data subject access at Minn. Stat. § 13.04, subd. 3
Other Minnesota rules to know: (1) Safe at Home carve-out — a Chapter 5B program participant (domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking survivors) may submit a written request and have ALPR data on them destroyed at the moment of collection, a protection few states offer. (2) Exculpatory-evidence hold — a criminal defendant may make a written request to preserve ALPR data past 60 days if it may be exculpatory.
(3) No central state repository of ALPR data is allowed unless explicitly authorized by law, which is why there is no single statewide office to query and why a driver may have to file separate data practices requests with each city. (4) ALPR reads may only be matched against the Minnesota license plate data file unless the additional data source relates to an active criminal investigation.
(5) An agency that has not adopted a written ALPR policy may not lawfully operate ALPRs at all. (6) The biennial independent audits and the § 13.824, subd. 3 audit trail are the strongest practical tool a Minnesota driver has — you may be able to obtain a log of exactly who searched your plate and why, which drivers in states without an ALPR statute generally cannot get.
(7) The Minnesota Department of Administration’s Data Practices Office maintains a dedicated ALPR audits page at https://mn.gov/admin/data-practices/data/types/lawenforcement/alpr/. (8) Nothing here guarantees an outcome — retention, access and destruction practices vary by department, and you may need to check with the specific agency, the Data Practices Office, or your court.
This guide to are flock cameras legal in Minnesota was last verified against official sources in September 2026. ALPR law is the fastest-moving area of traffic law — the dated sections above are refreshed as developments land.
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