Local resident cites Minnesota statute in warning that Flock contract may violate ALPR law

At the Saint Paul public hearing, Matt Ealing, who identified himself as a board member of Minnesotans for Open Government, urged the council to scrutinize contracts that let local ALPR (automatic license plate reader) images become part of national or multi-jurisdictional datasets.

Ealing summarized the statute he cited as follows: "the statute would prohibit the creation of a statewide repository of ALPR data; the statute would only allow ALPR use related to active criminal investigations; law enforcement entities could only check ALPR images against the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's hot list unless there was an ongoing criminal investigation that warranted additional checks." He said that participation with vendors that send data to national databases like Flock or that allow cross-jurisdictional searches could contravene those limits and thus raise legal risk for the city.

Ealing concluded by asking the council to review his written comments for supporting detail and to consider whether vendor agreements are consistent with state law. The council did not take a legal finding at the hearing; Ealing's remarks were part of the public record for council review.