News

Police Department Reveals Patriots Destroyed All Eight Of Its Flock Cameras

August 6, 2026

A Minnesota police department announced Tuesday that all eight of the city’s Flock cameras had been stolen, in the latest of a series of Flock vandalism incidents across the country.

An officer at the Winona Police Department (WPD), located in Southeastern Minnesota, noticed Saturday evening that none of the city’s cameras had registered recent activity, according to a press release. Officers checked camera locations around the city and found the camera poles chopped down at the base. While they discovered the poles discarded in weeds nearby, the cameras were missing.

The cameras still had not been located when the press release was sent out Tuesday. The police department said the thefts most likely occurred between July 29 and August 1. Each camera and pole would cost about $3,000 to replace, according to the release.

Police Sgt. Nicholas Quimby said Monday that philosophical dislike of Flock cameras or hopes to make money “are definitely possibilities as far as motive, but we haven’t been able to talk to any suspects yet,” according to The Minnesota Star Tribune.

As Flock Safety has become one of the country’s largest providers of Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems, discontent with their mass surveillance has grown. The Winona theft is just one instance of Flock camera vandalism incidents that have occurred throughout the nation.

Sarcastic comments about how the WPD should check its Flock cameras flooded its Facebook page after the department announced the stolen cameras.

One WPD post said Tuesday that the department had found a set of lost keys.

“Have you tried checking your flock cameras…. Oh wait lol,” one Facebook user wrote in response.

“Why don’t you just simply check your flock cameras for who was there at the oh wait oh never mind those illegal collecting evidence without a search warrant cameras mysteriously disappeared LOL,” another Facebook user wrote Tuesday in response to last week’s post about a missing ring.

Winona is not the only place where Flock cameras have been vandalized.

Authorities in Ashland County, Ohio, said vandals began targeting Flock cameras on July 8, according to Fox8. Some cameras were damaged by a car or truck, while others were struck by what authorities believe to be a baseball bat or some kind of club.

Police discovered two Flock cameras cut in half and spraypainted in Houston, Texas, in early July, according to ABC13. One camera was completely spraypainted, and the other had an American flag on it. At the time, Flock Safety told the outlet that they receive very few reports about this type of vandalism, overall. Four more cameras were cut down in Houston on July 25, according to KHOU-11.

North Carolina police asked for tips in July after a vandal allegedly cut down a newly installed Flock Camera, according to Gadget Review. The response — tips referring to “Batman and Robin” and The Lone Ranger and Tonto — mirrored the sarcastic comments the WPD received after its announcement of vandalism.

Police officers responding to the vandalism frequently pointed to the people hurt by the lack of surveillance.

“Now that they’ve been damaged and are down, what are we missing? How many people are coming through that may have been missing or that have been wanted? Victims need their justice, and now that those cameras are not there to help us, how many people slip through the cracks?” Ashland County Sheriff Kurt Schneider asked after the Georgia vandalism, according to Fox8.

But while Flock describes its searches as “logged, safe, and auditable,” many continue to raise concerns about whether its ALPRs are safe and legal.

A Kansas man filed a lawsuit in Wichita Thursday, challenging “the government’s indiscriminate and warrantless dragnet surveillance of anyone, and everyone, driving in the City of Wichita” via Flock cameras. He is arguing that the cameras violate the Kansas Constitution.

Other cases show law enforcement officials using Flock cameras wrongly. The Savannah Police Department is currently investigating six employees — four law enforcement officials and two civilian employees — who allegedly used the Flock database for non-law-enforcement purposes, including looking for personal acquaintances and family members, according to WSB-TV.