Loud Voices: Shorewood Takes On $7.5B Corp.

It started with a letter that flew under the radar: A small bedroom community taking on a $7.5B national company with strong ties to law enforcement, and thanks to determined residents, bagging the spy camera and chasing it out of town. A true David and Goliath story.

Flock: Surveillance Without Accountability?

Since finding out the impact of Flock Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) in our cities, SCA has dug into a black hole of surveillance information. Flock sells itself as a friend of law enforcement and a safety advocate. It often contradicts its own guidelines. Intentional or not, those contradictions cause questions and distrust.

Flock Cameras = FBI Cameras?

If your neighborhood has Flock Safety cameras mounted at intersections in your city, the FBI may soon be watching every vehicle that passes through, in near real time, without a warrant.

Surveillance Camera In The Bag

This article describes how a handful of vocal residents disrupted the existence of a Flock surveillance system they initially knew nothing about—and, once they understood it, firmly opposed.

Surveillance on the Agenda: Show Up. Speak Up.

If you have read the SCA articles about the Flock surveillance cameras, this meeting may interest you. The council will be hearing from those supporting the continuation of surveillance cameras in our city. There is no indication that anyone not supporting surveillance has been included.

Safety or Surveillance?

Flock license-plate cameras are watching us. We did not ask for them, didn’t vote for them, and most residents did not know they were being installed. Now, we live with our movements being watched 24/7.

A Few ‘Loud’ Voices

Concerns about Flock license plate reading cameras’ targeting capabilities and data use are mounting. Flock uses license-plate–reading cameras and AI at intersections in Excelsior, Greenwood and Shorewood to collect data on every passing vehicle. This includes your vehicle, or your teen’s vehicle.

Flock Surveillance Cameras: What You Should Know

Most South Lake residents don’t know that the South Lake Minnetonka Police Department uses automated license-plate-reader across all four Joint Powers Agreement cities: Shorewood, Excelsior, Greenwood, and Tonka Bay. Learn more about the uses, questions and concerns surrounding this technology.

Automated License Plate Reader Privacy Concerns

A letter from a Shorewood resident to the Shorewood City Council raised privacy concerns about the Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers (ALPR) installed in the South Lake area. This letter triggered a work session being scheduled on 10/10/2025 to discuss those concerns.

Automated License Plate Reading Comes to Town

After a presentation by South Lake Minnetonka Police Department (SLMPD), the Shorewood City Council approved the installation of a Flock Safety camera system during their regular meeting on October 23, 2023. The Public Safety Aid awarded to cities in the 2023 legislative session was used to fund the camera system, which includes four cameras: one for each city in the SLMPD service area.

Shorewood Citizen Advocates

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