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Minnesota is now part of the growing national trend of vandalism against Flock surveillance cameras.

all eight of Winona’s Flock camera’s were stolen

. Similar vandalism also occurred in Edina, Faribault and Duluth. In fact, it's gotten so bad that the city of Minneapolis 

 that their city-owned traffic cameras are not owned by Flock.

The cameras use artificial intelligence to scan license plates, bumper stickers and makes and models of cars to compile all sorts of data in an instant. Civil liberties groups have said that the cameras allow police to track peoples’ movements without a warrant. Police have said the data is invaluable for solving crimes and for missing person cases.

William McGeveran is the dean of the University of Minnesota Law School and a data privacy expert. He said that across U.S. law enforcement agencies, these camera’s are scanning billions of licenses plates a month. 

He said although police should be able to have the information to do their jobs, over-surveillance can be easily abused.

“There's dozens of cases around the country of police officers improperly using it to, for example, stalk girlfriends or ex-girlfriends,” he said. “There's reports that at least 19 agencies surveilled the No Kings rallies that have been happening recently.”

McGeveran said across the country, lawsuits from both liberal and 

 have cropped up in hopes of stemming their use. And he added that 

 have already began removing Flock cameras or competitor’s cameras with similar data-gathering techniques. Columbia Heights 

McGeveran said that it wouldn’t surprise him if the stolen cameras are being sold for their parts, but doesn’t believe that’s the motivator behind the vandalism.

“This is a political protest. They don't think the camera should be there, and they decide to take that into their own hands.”

Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player above.

Crime, Law and Justice

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Morning Edition

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Cathy Wurzer

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Lukas Levin

Author

Flock cameras across the nation are the target of anti-surveillance protests. 

Flock cameras capture tons of traffic data. Now protestors are taking them down

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