Sherburne County Pulls Plug on License Plate Cameras Over Community Trust

ELK RIVER (WJON News) -- Sherburne County is the latest government organization to discontinue the use of license plate reading cameras.

The Sherburne County Sheriff's Office says they are discontinuing its service agreement with Flock Safety. Commander Ben Zawacki says they had been using grant money as part of a pilot project to test the cameras on a trial basis. The county would have had to commit taxpayer dollars to a new contract to continue using them.

Zawacki says "While they believe license plate readers can be a useful tool for public safety, there has been a growing backlash against how some agencies have used the data collected by the cameras."

He says they value their relationship with the community and don't want to erode the trust they have with them.

The sheriff's office has discontinued services with Flock and, as of Wednesday, has disabled the camera search capabilities. Up next will be cutting power to the cameras and removing them.