Sean Hayford Oleary’s response

I appreciate the community feedback and welcome folks to share it directly with us by email, phone, or via public comment during one of our meetings. While Change.org verifies email addresses, we cannot verify who is or is not a Richfield resident. However, I have heard from many Richfield residents that they share the concerns raised here.

Flock was accepted by the Council at the request of our police department, who continues to feel it is a valid investigative tool. State law precludes many of the most troubling violations that have occurred in other states; in addition, Richfield itself has additional protections: retaining data for half the allowed period (30 days rather than 60), and sharing access to video exclusively with our 911 dispatch partner, the City of Edina. We do not allow statewide sharing, and certainly not national use of the data. Any evidence that Flock has done this with our data would be a breach of our contract as well as Minnesota law. Richfield PD received a data request from the Star Tribune for their July 20th article, and the reporters on that article did not include Richfield specifically because they did not find the violations that occurred in other jurisdictions.

I understand that even with these precautions, there are valid privacy concerns to our continued use of Flock. I have requested that any future renewal of our Flock contract be brought to us for consideration at the City Council, rather than occurring at a staff level only. Currently, this is not expected until the end of 2027. Please continue to reach out to share or discuss your concerns.