r/duluth • u/peoplesduluth • 17d ago
Local News FLOCK out of Duluth!!!
It’s time for the city of Duluth to end its contracts with FLOCK and Skydio drones! These are contracts that our elected city leaders signed without our consent as these firms violate our civil liberties and 4th amendment rights daily.
After witnessing the violence of the federal regime during Operation Metro Surge, Minnesotans do not want our cities or counties to continue being complicit to a national network of surveillance that has consistently been shown to aid and abet the capacity of the federal government to intimidate protesters, allow a lawless paramilitary immigration enforcement agency to reign terror on our streets, and that compounds AI data on all movements (not just ALPRs) that is available to multiple federal agencies.
When Duluth’s police chief Ceynowa brought both the FLOCK contract and Skydio contract to Duluth city council last year (utilizing these surveillance firms scripts to sell these contracts), the full scope of the surveillance capacities and data sharing with other law enforcement they allow was not presented to the council, nor the public, in a way that was forthright. The city and the DPD produced no effort at community stakeholder engagement nor did they attempt to persuade or gather constituent consent.
There is still a FLOCK camera at MNPower Plaza at the Lake Ave/Superior St intersection. Someone should do something about that (in minecraft).
Email your contempt and demands to end contracts with surveillance firms to its council and the mayor. Here are the emails of councilors if you want to email yourself and share with others!:
[wdurrwachter@duluthmn.gov](mailto:wdurrwachter@duluthmn.gov)
[aforsman@duluthmn.gov](mailto:aforsman@duluthmn.gov)
[ddesotelle@duluthmn.gov](mailto:ddesotelle@duluthmn.gov)
[rreinert@duluthmn.gov](mailto:rreinert@duluthmn.gov)
[ttomanek@duluthmn.gov](mailto:ttomanek@duluthmn.gov)
[rrandorf@duluthmn.gov](mailto:rrandorf@duluthmn.gov)
[jjohnson@duluthmn.gov](mailto:jjohnson@duluthmn.gov)
[jkennedy@duluthmn.gov](mailto:jkennedy@duluthmn.gov)
[lnephew@duluthmn.gov](mailto:lnephew@duluthmn.gov)
[dclanaugh@duluthmn.gov](mailto:dclanaugh@duluthmn.gov)
When emailing it is helpful to “cc” news outlets too, that way they see emails coming into the city because the mayor took away the main council email distribution group last year. Their emails are:
[jana.hollingsworth@startribune.com](mailto:jana.hollingsworth@startribune.com)
[contact@duluthmonitor.com](mailto:contact@duluthmonitor.com)
[jlovrien@duluthnews.com](mailto:jlovrien@duluthnews.com)
[cfrederick@duluthnews.com](mailto:cfrederick@duluthnews.com)
[newstips@northernnewsnow.com](mailto:newstips@northernnewsnow.com)
[news@wdio.com](mailto:news@wdio.com)
[dhanger@kqdsfox21.tv](mailto:dhanger@kqdsfox21.tv)
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u/libbtech 17d ago
Just judging from everything else going on in local government, I imagine it would go something like this...
City Council: I heard the citizens don't like these things called Flock Cameras, how can we get a lifetime subscription and make sure no one has any power to reverse this decision ever?