Saint Paul Police Department
- Active ·
St. Paul PD's Flock portal shows zero plate reads but 669 searches
Reduced TransparencySt. Paul PD's Flock transparency portal (transparency.flocksafety.com/st-paul-mn-pd) is still online. Its "last updated" date is November 1, 2026. The portal reports 0 unique vehicles detected over the last 30 days, so St. Paul's own cameras collected no plate reads in that period. It reports 669 search sessions by St. Paul users over the same 30 days. It still lists 1 camera location and 7-day data retention. With no plate reads of its own and a 7-day retention period, St. Paul PD would hold no current data from its own cameras. Its searches would therefore draw on data from other agencies in the Flock network. The portal still lists 53 organizations as having access to St. Paul PD data. They include the Ramsey County, Hennepin County and Anoka County sheriff's offices, the Paul Bunyan Task Force, and the University of Minnesota PD. Context: on August 26, 2026, the mayor and police chief announced that the city's two city-owned Flock cameras would be removed. The portal does not show whether the remaining listed camera is still installed or switched on. Its zero read count is consistent with a camera that is not collecting.
What does this mean?
The agency now discloses less about its license plate readers than it did before. That can mean camera locations withheld from the state BCA roster, metrics or policy details removed from its Flock transparency portal, or counts that go blank or stop updating. Some of this information is reported under Minn. Stat. 13.824 and some is voluntary, and withholding is not by itself a sign the cameras were removed or that the law was broken. It does make it harder for residents to see where the cameras are and how they are used. The underlying records can still be requested under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. - Active ·
St. Paul PD stopped sharing with Winona PD
Stopped sharing with an agencyWinona PD (MN) no longer appears in the list of organizations granted access to Saint Paul Police Department data on its Flock transparency portal. Surfaced between portal snapshots of 2026-10-07 and 2026-10-08.
What does this mean?
The agency removed a sharing partner, narrowing who can search its plate data. This can follow a policy change, public pressure, or a contract decision. - Active ·
St. Paul PD stopped sharing with Duluth PD
Stopped sharing with an agencyDuluth MN PD was removed from the list of organizations granted access to Saint Paul Police Department (MN) data. It was deleted from the list entirely rather than tagged [Inactive]. Everything else on the portal is unchanged from the previous snapshot (2026-10-04): 1 fixed LPR location, 7-day retention, the same hotlist sources (NCMEC Amber Alert, FBI National Hotlist, MN BCA), and the same policy text. The change occurred sometime after 2026-10-04 and was detected on 2026-10-07. Duluth PD's own portal was not checked, and Duluth does not appear on the Paul Bunyan Task Force sharing list in either snapshot, so no corroborating portal is known. The portal does not say which side ended the sharing. Source: https://transparency.flocksafety.com/st-paul-mn-pd
What does this mean?
The agency removed a sharing partner, narrowing who can search its plate data. This can follow a policy change, public pressure, or a contract decision. - Active ·
St. Paul PD stopped sharing with Maple Grove PD
Stopped sharing with an agencyMaple Grove MN PD was removed from the "Sharing Network Data With" list on the St. Paul PD transparency portal. It was present in the portal snapshot of 2026-09-25 and absent on 2026-10-04. Maple Grove's own Flock portal still loads and shows as active, so this appears to be a change to the sharing relationship, not Maple Grove leaving Flock. The portal does not say which side ended the sharing. The same removal appeared on the Spring Lake Park PD portal.
What does this mean?
The agency removed a sharing partner, narrowing who can search its plate data. This can follow a policy change, public pressure, or a contract decision. - Active ·
St. Paul PD stopped sharing with Itasca County Sheriff's Office
Stopped sharing with an agencyItasca County MN SO was removed from the list of organizations granted access to Saint Paul Police Department (MN) data, taking the sharing list from 57 organizations to 56. It was deleted from the list entirely rather than tagged [Inactive]. Everything else on the portal is unchanged from the previous snapshot (2026-09-23): 1 fixed LPR location, 7-day retention, the same hotlist sources (NCMEC Amber Alert, FBI National Hotlist, MN BCA), and the same policy text. This is the third monitored portal to drop Itasca County SO in the same window — Paul Bunyan Task Force (logged 2026-09-24) and Spring Lake Park PD (logged 2026-09-25) both removed it as well — which points to a change on Itasca County's side rather than three separate decisions. Itasca County's own transparency portal is not monitored (it has no known Flock portal), so it is not confirmed whether it left the Flock network entirely or only ended these sharing agreements; the MN BCA roster separately shows Itasca County SO's disclosed fixed ALPR locations changed to "N/A" around the same time, which may reflect the same underlying change but comes from a vendor-neutral source and is logged separately. Source: https://transparency.flocksafety.com/st-paul-mn-pd
What does this mean?
The agency removed a sharing partner, narrowing who can search its plate data. This can follow a policy change, public pressure, or a contract decision. - Active ·
St. Paul PD stopped sharing with Todd County Sheriff's Office
Stopped sharing with an agencyTodd County MN SO was removed from the list of organizations granted access to Saint Paul Police Department (MN) data on the St. Paul PD Flock transparency portal, taking the sharing list from 58 organizations to 57. It was deleted from the list entirely rather than tagged [Inactive]. Everything else on the portal is unchanged from the previous snapshot (2026-09-05): 1 fixed LPR location, 7-day retention, the same hotlist sources (NCMEC Amber Alert, FBI National Hotlist, MN BCA), and the same policy text. The change occurred sometime after 2026-09-05 and was observed on the live portal on 2026-09-22. (The 2026-09-22 monitor alert itself captured a blank page load; the portal was live and fully rendered when checked directly the same day, so this entry reflects a direct comparison of the 2026-09-05 snapshot against the live portal.) Source: https://transparency.flocksafety.com/st-paul-mn-pd
What does this mean?
The agency removed a sharing partner, narrowing who can search its plate data. This can follow a policy change, public pressure, or a contract decision. - Active ·
Saint Paul PD stopped sharing with Crystal PD
Stopped sharing with an agencyCrystal MN PD was removed from the list of organizations granted access to Saint Paul Police Department (MN) data, taking the sharing list from 59 organizations to 58. It was deleted from the list entirely rather than tagged [Inactive]. Everything else on the portal was unchanged from the previous snapshot (2026-08-25): 1 fixed LPR location, 7-day retention, the same hotlist sources (NCMEC Amber Alert, FBI National Hotlist, MN BCA), and the same policy text. The change was detected 2026-09-05 and occurred sometime after 2026-08-25. This is the third monitored portal to drop Crystal in the same window — Paul Bunyan Task Force and Spring Lake Park PD both removed it on 2026-09-04 — which points to a change on Crystal's side rather than separate decisions by each portal owner. Crystal PD's own portal is not monitored, so it is not confirmed whether Crystal left the Flock network or only these sharing agreements ended.
What does this mean?
The agency removed a sharing partner, narrowing who can search its plate data. This can follow a policy change, public pressure, or a contract decision. - Active ·
St. Paul PD stopped disclosing any license plate reader locations on the state roster
Camera locations removedSt. Paul PD's entry on the Minnesota BCA license plate reader roster no longer names any camera locations. The field now reads "N/A." It previously listed: - Kellogg Boulevard at Smith Avenue North (2) The field for other surveillance devices with license plate reading capability still reads "N/A." The day before, on August 26, 2026, the mayor and police chief announced that the city's two city-owned Flock cameras would be removed. Source: Minnesota BCA, "Agencies that use License Plate Readers (LPR)": https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca/data-and-reports/agencies-use-lprs-lpr
What does this mean?
One or more camera locations no longer appear on the agency's entry in the Minnesota BCA's public roster of license plate reader users. A dropped location can mean a camera was taken down or moved, or that the listing was only edited; the roster does not say which. Plate reads already collected can stay on file, since Minn. Stat. 13.824 requires destruction within 60 days only for reads not tied to an active investigation. The roster covers every ALPR vendor, not just Flock Safety. - Active ·
St. Paul PD announced it will remove its two city-owned Flock cameras
OtherAfter a City Council meeting on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, Mayor Kaohly Her and the police chief announced that the city's two city-owned Flock cameras would be taken down. KSTP reports the council voted unanimously on a resolution. Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said the county's 10 cameras in St. Paul will stay, because the resolution does not require his office to remove them. The articles published August 26-27 do not give a removal date for the two city cameras. Sources: KSTP (kstp.com, Aug 26, 2026); CBS Minnesota (cbsnews.com/minnesota, Aug 27, 2026).
What does this mean?
A change that does not fit the standard categories. See the update's details for specifics. - Active ·
St. Paul PD's Flock transparency portal went live
Portal went liveThe St. Paul Police Department's Flock transparency portal became publicly available and was first observed on August 12, 2026. Flock does not publish portal launch dates; the portal is understood to have gone live during the first week of August 2026. St. Paul PD also appears on the Minnesota BCA's public roster of agencies that use license plate readers.
What does this mean?
Flock Safety publishes a public transparency portal for each agency that uses its automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras. A new portal usually means the agency has signed a Flock contract and begun deploying cameras, or has started disclosing an existing deployment. Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. 13.824) requires agencies to log their ALPR use and notify the state BCA, which keeps a public list of agencies that operate the cameras.