Sheriff's office and vendor propose nine‑camera LPR pilot; county staff flag costs and data‑sharing questions

Sheriff's office staff and representatives from Flock Safety presented a proposed pilot to install automatic license‑plate reader (LPR) cameras on ingress routes into Crow Wing County. The vendor said the system is solar/LTE powered and subscription based; the initial county budget for deployment was described as roughly $36,000 with City of Emily covering one camera and total near $40,000 for nine stationary and one portable unit. Annual subscription fees were quoted at about $3,000 per short‑range camera and $5,000 per long‑range camera.

Flock's local representative said the system is designed to protect privacy by design, automatically deleting unused data after 30 days and maintaining audit trails for searches; he emphasized that the product does not perform facial recognition and that data are proprietary to the customer. "We automatically delete data after 30 days, and no individual personal data is collected by Flock whatsoever," the vendor said. Commissioners asked why data are purged after 30 days and how alerts and cross‑jurisdiction sharing work; the vendor explained that data retained for active investigations are preserved and that alerts tied to NCIC, Amber or Silver alerts are available across the network even when sharing settings differ.

Commissioners raised questions about cost sharing with townships and cities, the need for IT review of cloud storage and access controls, and who would have access to search the system. Staff said a contract would come to the board the following week and several commissioners indicated consent‑agenda placement would be acceptable, subject to IT review and clearer cost‑share plans.