To the Richfield City Council, City Manager, and Police Department:

We, the undersigned residents of Richfield, Minnesota, formally petition the City to (1) immediately suspend and terminate its contract with Flock Safety, (2) remove all existing Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras from Richfield, (3) refrain from entering into any contract with Flock Safety or any similar surveillance camera company in the future, and (4) require that any future proposal to install government surveillance technology in our city be put to a public vote of Richfield residents before implementation.

WHY WE ARE PETITIONING

The City installed and has continued to operate Flock cameras without adequate resident input, transparency, or an up-or-down public vote. These cameras record the movements of every vehicle that passes them — including those belonging to residents who have committed no crime — and retain that information in a manner that raises serious Fourth Amendment concerns regarding unreasonable searches conducted without a warrant or individualized suspicion. A majority of residents we have spoken with did not know these cameras were installed and do not support their continued use. Public dollars are funding this program, and the public should have a direct say in whether it continues.

QUESTIONS THAT WE ARE ASKING THE CITY TO ANSWER BY SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2026

We ask the City Council to respond publicly and in writing to the following before any further action is taken on ANY surveillance contract:

1. Did the City survey or formally ask residents whether they wanted these cameras installed, before or after the fact?
2. Which city council members voted for Flock to be used in our city?  (Surface this list immediately to the public in a press release.) 
3. Given that taxpayer dollars fund this program, why was a resident vote not held before the contract was signed? Will the City pause the Flock contract immediately and schedule a special citizen vote?
4. City representatives have stated there are "no documented abuses." Please clarify: does this mean no abuses have occurred, or simply that none have been formally documented and tracked? These are materially different claims, and residents deserve an honest answer.
5. The City has stated the cameras have "assisted" investigations. Please provide the underlying data: How many cases have resulted in actual convictions attributable to Flock data? Is there measurable evidence that Richfield is safer as a result, or only anecdotal claims?  How many times were arrests made that were inaccurate?
6. Are there any public meetings scheduled specifically to discuss the Flock camera program, separate from general council business, where residents can be heard on this issue?
7. Are the cameras recording continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week?
8. Are officers actively monitoring camera feeds in real time? If so, how many officer-hours and how much taxpayer money are being spent on this monitoring (e.g., shift coverage)?
9. Is any artificial intelligence or automated analysis being applied to this footage or data? AI-based identification systems have a documented history of errors and misidentifications nationally — what safeguards are in place against those errors?
10. Is a full account of Richfield's use of Flock technology — policies, access logs, and audit results — publicly available, and if not, why not?
11. Where is the data stored — on Richfield-owned servers or on Flock's servers?
    1. Does Flock have access to our residents' data? With whom does Flock share this data, and can the City guarantee it is not shared with other agencies, including federal immigration or other outside agencies?
    2. Does an independent Richfield IT professional with log-auditing expertise regularly review and certify that Flock is not using, storing, or sharing our data beyond its stated purpose? How often does this review occur?
12. Does the city or any city employee receive any revenue, rebate, discount, or in-kind compensation from Flock Safety — for example, referral credits for recruiting neighboring municipalities to sign up?

OUR REQUEST

We ask the Richfield City Council to:

• Immediately pause the Flock Safety contract and use of the cameras;
• Cancel the remainder of the Flock Safety contract indefinitely;
• Delete all data from all servers everywhere that was collected by the cameras;
• Publicly answer the questions above in writing by September 15th, 2026;
• Hold a special public forum dedicated to this issue;
• Commit to resident votes on any future surveillance technology proposals.