To The Editor:

I share many of the concerns from recent letters to the editor about how SLP Flock camera data could be misused. At the same time, I believe that automated license plate readers (ALPRs) can make us safer.

I am disappointed in the St. Louis Park City Council for refusing to bring up this topic for more research and discussion. Failure to do so has created tension within the community, broken trust, and severely limited the discourse of possibilities. Our city should make it a priority to research the range of possibilities for future ALPR use.

My suggestion is that we ditch our contract with Flock and run a city-managed system where the data collected by the ALPRs never leaves the city. We could still bounce the collected license plate data against the state database so that the police would be informed about vehicles entering the city that are associated with warrants, missing persons and stolen vehicles, but we wouldn’t have to worry about whether the data we are collecting is being used or misused by others.

Adopting this kind of system would limit or eliminate our ability to mine Flock camera data from other cities, but that seems like a small price to pay compared to the gains in privacy for our residents.

If you like this idea, contact your ward councilperson, the two at-large council members, the mayor and the city manager.

If you are interested in getting more involved, check into Progress in the Park at progressinthepark.org.

Matthew Kinney
St. Louis Park

Published in the St. Louis Park + Hopkins Sun Sailor on May 28, 2026