MANKATO — The Mankato Department of Public Safety has activated the first of its new A.I-enhanced tracking cameras, along with automated license plate readers in all city squad cars.
So far, no one from outside of the city of Mankato has sought access to the images and data, according to Public Safety Director Jeremy Clifton, making his first required quarterly report to the City Council at its final meeting of the year. Clifton said the cameras have already helped to solve crime and locate missing people while not being misused.
“Big Brother is not here,” he said. “We’re using it appropriately. I think we’ve done everything we can to make sure that happens, because that is what we heard throughout 2025 as we adopted this program.”
The new technologies — seen by police as powerful tools for fighting crime and enhancing community safety — generated strong opposition by dozens of area residents last spring who saw the surveillance systems as Orwellian and ripe for abuse, particularly by anti-immigrant federal government agencies.
The original proposal by Clifton and Information Technology Director Doug Storm last February was a five-part expansion of “public safety technology enhancements.” The plan was to activate automated license plate readers already installed in police squad cars, add more high-definition cameras in certain public locations and boost the use of artificial-intelligence-powered software capable of tracking vehicles and individuals of interest as they move from one camera’s viewpoint to another’s. The other components of the plan involved the acquisition of a trailer-mounted camera tower that could be moved strategically around the city. And, most controversial, Mankato would have joined the privately owned Flock Safety system, agreeing to the placement of cameras at 12 key entrance points to the city and adding Mankato to hundreds of other local jurisdictions in the nationwide law enforcement monitoring network.
No one on the seven-member council expressed significant concerns about any of the elements during months of discussion. But at the end of a crowded and contentious meeting on June 9, the council attempted a compromise — authorizing the use of the squad car license plate readers, the purchase of 20 high-definition city-owned cameras to be placed at high-priority locations across Mankato and the use of the A.I. tracking software from Milestone Systems. To show that they had heard the concerns of residents — primarily related to privacy and to potential misuse of the technology by everyone from local cops to federal immigration squads — the council agreed to delay for at least six months the addition of the mobile camera tower and the subscription to the Flock network.
On Dec. 8, Clifton reviewed the policy adopted for use of the technology, including strict auditing of when and how officers are accessing the data, allowing only department supervisors to actively search for a specific person or vehicle, purging collected data after 60 days and more.
“Most importantly, and this goes back to the privacy, the data is ours,” he said. “It’s not shared outside of our agency unless done through written, formal, expressed request. And then, only with permissions, will we grant the data outside of our agency. … To date, since implementation, we’ve not received such a request.”
As of July, the automated license plate readers from Axon Enterprises have been in use in every squad car, constantly scanning the plates of nearby vehicles during patrols throughout town. If any of the plates is flagged in the state of Minnesota’s license plate database, the officer receives an alert.
“We’re talking about AMBER alerts, we’re talking about missing people, arrestable warrants, drivers license status and stolen motor vehicles,” Clifton said. “This is the same information a police officer can get when they type in that plate in their mobile data system. It’s just doing it more quickly and more efficiently and done automatically.”
During the first four months, the Axon system led to 27 citations for offenses such as driving without insurance or with a revoked license. It has also assisted officers in locating stolen vehicles, identifying wanted persons, finding missing vulnerable adults and corroborating two sexual assault victim’s statements that the alleged offender was at a specific address at the time of the crime, he said.
The first two Milestone cameras were installed above semaphores on Riverfront Drive at Rock Street and at North Victory Drive and Hazeltine Road. A third location — South Victory and Main Street — is also now listed on the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension website that specifies where every government-owned fixed-location license plate reader is mounted across the state.
The Milestone cameras aren’t connected to the state license plate database, so they don’t give instantaneous alerts about pegged license plates. But department supervisors can use them to look for criminal suspects, according to Clifton.
“It just gives us a more robust system in order to look for, specifically, vehicles associated with a crime,” he said.
More Milestone cameras are being purchased, and their locations will be listed on the BCA site as they are installed.
Council members asked several questions following Clifton’s report, most of them admittedly leading questions aimed at reassuring opponents of the surveillance program.
In response to the questions, City Manager Susan Arntz and Clifton said data would be turned over to other law enforcement agencies only after a written request is received and the sharing is authorized by Clifton, often with review by the city attorney. Federal authorities such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not have automatic access to the data.
“ICE cannot access our system,” Clifton added. “They would have to make a request just like any other law enforcement entity.”
For non-criminal cases such as immigration enforcement, city policy would not allow ICE to use the local cameras to search for a specific license plate.
“We cannot do that for them,” he said.
Council President Mike Laven wondered if Clifton’s future quarterly reports could summarize which local law enforcement agencies requested data from the surveillance system and how frequently. And Laven asked if the council could be notified sooner if federal officials make requests.
“Do you have a potential plan for how you would share that information, whether it’s the council or the community?” Laven asked.
Arntz jumped in before Clifton could respond, indicating reluctance to do that.
“… I wouldn’t be inclined to report the data requests from entities unless you requested it,” she said.
No other council members joined Laven in making that request.
There was also no discussion of revisiting the purchase of the trailer-mounted surveillance camera, which Clifton had previously hoped to buy or lease for deployment at large community events or possibly to locations where there had been problems with criminal activity.
Council member Michael McLaughlin appeared to make a reference to possibly joining the Flock Technologies network in the future when asking Clifton about an October incident where a white pickup truck fled a hit-and-run crash.
“… That next step that we will potentially consider down the road, would those technologies have made (solving the case) easier or potentially possible?” McLaughlin asked.
Clifton said it would have been helpful.
The debate over whether to accept Flock cameras and join the network — or to cancel an existing contract — continues to roil communities across the country. In recent weeks, opponents have highlighted data breaches involving Flock cameras while supporters noted the role they played in identifying the man who committed murders at Brown University on Dec. 13 and Dec. 16 at MIT.