MN PRIVACY PROJECT: RECORDS REQUEST PLAYBOOK

The Records Request Playbook

How to find out what your city’s cameras are really doing. No experience required.

You don’t need a law degree. You don’t need to be a journalist. You don’t need to have done anything like this before. In Minnesota, any person can ask any government office for its records, and the office has to answer. You don’t have to give your name. You don’t have to explain why you’re asking. The law is on your side before you even start.

That’s not a pep talk. That’s Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13, the Government Data Practices Act. Everything in this playbook rests on it.

Here’s why your request matters. Nearly every scandal you’ve read about these cameras came to light because one person filed a records request and read what came back. The officer who tracked his ex. The departments running searches for ICE. The searches on protesters. None of that came from a senator or a newsroom with lawyers. It came from a person with an email address. The audit that exposed millions of searches in one North Carolina county started exactly this way.

Your city’s paper trail is sitting in a filing cabinet and a Flock dashboard right now. Let’s go get it.

The whole thing on one card

Here’s the entire path, start to finish. Every step below gets its own walkthrough further down, with a template letter and a field guide for when someone tries to slow you down. But if all you want right now is the shape of it:

Check deflock.me and your council minutes. Find your agency.
Find the data request page or the city clerk’s email.
Copy the template. Fill in the brackets. Send it.
Save a copy. Set a two-week reminder.
Nudge at week 2 and week 4. Stay friendly.
Hit a wall? Find it in Step 6 and use the counter.
Still stuck? Email the Data Practices Office. It’s free.
Send whatever you get to [email protected].

That’s it. Eight steps, most of them a few minutes each. Everything from here is detail and backup.

What we’re after

Six things, in rough order of how hard they are to get:

The contract. Start date, end date, renewal terms, and what your city pays.
The cameras. How many, and where they stand. Minnesota law requires a public list (Minn. Stat. § 13.824, subd. 5(b)).
The policy. The written rules for who can search the system and why, plus the data retention schedule, which says how long the plate reads stick around. Minnesota law caps retention at 60 days outside active investigations, so the schedule on paper and the practice in the logs both matter.
The search logs. Every search of the system gets logged automatically: who searched, when, and the reason they typed in. This is the gold. It’s where “ICE” and “protest” and somebody’s ex-girlfriend’s name show up.
The sharing list. Which outside agencies can search your city’s cameras. Some Minnesota agencies share with hundreds of departments in other states.
The audit. Minnesota requires an independent audit of every ALPR program every two years, and the results are public by law.

You’ll ask for all six in one letter. The template below does it for you.

Step 1: Find out who has cameras near you (15 minutes)

Your city might run cameras. Or your county sheriff. Or both. Or neither. Sometimes it’s the next town over, watching the road you drive to work.

Check these, in order:

deflock.me. A crowdsourced map of ALPR cameras. Zoom to your area.
eyesonflock.com. An index of every agency with a Flock “transparency portal.” Search your city and county.
atlasofsurveillance.org. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s catalog of police tech, searchable by agency.
Your city council’s website. Search the agendas and minutes for “Flock,” “ALPR,” or “license plate.” Contracts get approved in public meetings, and the meeting packet often contains the contract itself. Sometimes you can grab it without filing anything.
The BCA list. State law requires every agency using plate readers to report it to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and requires the BCA to post the list on its website. Click an agency’s name to see where its stationary cameras stand. If your agency runs cameras but doesn’t appear here, note that too. Reporting is mandatory, and the gap is a finding.

Found an agency? Write it down. Found two? File with both. The city police and the county sheriff often hold different pieces.

Step 2: Find the right person (10 minutes)

Minnesota law says every government office must name a “responsible authority,” the person in charge of answering data requests. Finding them is usually one search: “[your city] data practices policy” or “[your city] data request.”

Most cities have a request form or portal on their website. Use it if it exists, since it’s often faster. If there’s no form, email works fine. At a city, the default responsible authority is the city clerk. At a police department, look for a records unit. At a county sheriff’s office, look for the records division. If you can’t tell who’s right, send it to the city clerk and ask them to route it. Routing it is their job, not yours.

Step 3: Know your rights before you hit send

This part is worth two minutes, because agencies count on requesters not knowing it.

Under the Data Practices Act:

Government data in Minnesota is public unless a specific law says otherwise.
You don’t have to identify yourself or give a reason when you ask for public data.
Looking at data (inspection) is always free.
If they keep the data electronically, and Flock logs are electronic, they must give you an electronic copy if they reasonably can. Electronic copies usually cost little or nothing.
They cannot charge you for the time it takes to black out the parts they’re allowed to withhold.
They must respond in a prompt and reasonable time. There’s no fixed deadline for public requests, which is exactly why the follow-up schedule in Step 5 matters.

And Minnesota has a law written specifically for these cameras, Minn. Stat. § 13.824. It’s stronger than what most states have, and your letter will lean on it hard:

Every search of ALPR data must be for a “legitimate, specified, and documented law enforcement purpose.” A blank reason field fails that standard.
Every query and every share must be recorded in an audit trail, and the audit trail is public to the extent no other law classifies it.
Agencies must keep a public log of ALPR use and a public list of where their fixed cameras are and have been.
The results of the required biennial audit are public.
Plate data not tied to an active investigation must be destroyed within 60 days. So if your request comes back showing years of retained reads, that’s a finding all by itself.

You’re not asking for a favor. You’re asking for records the legislature already decided you get to see.

Step 4: Send the letter

Copy this, fill in the brackets, and send it. Email gives you a timestamp, and so do portals. Six months is a good window for the search logs. It’s big enough to show patterns and small enough that nobody can call it burdensome.

Subject: Data request under Minn. Stat. Ch. 13, ALPR program records

To the Responsible Authority, [AGENCY NAME]:

Under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, Minn. Stat. Ch. 13, I request copies of the following government data concerning the agency’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) program, including any system provided by Flock Safety, Inc. Where the data exist in electronic form, please provide them in their original electronic format (CSV or spreadsheet), per Minn. Stat. § 13.03, subd. 3.

All contracts, agreements, order forms, quotes, renewals, and amendments with Flock Safety, Inc. or any other ALPR vendor, from the beginning of the vendor relationship to the present.

All purchase orders, invoices, and records of payment for ALPR cameras or services.

The agency’s current ALPR policy, including its data retention schedule, and the written data-access procedures required by Minn. Stat. § 13.824, subd. 7(b).

The public log of ALPR use required by Minn. Stat. § 13.824, subd. 5.

The list of current and previous locations of fixed ALPR cameras, including dates at each location, required by Minn. Stat. § 13.824, subd. 5(b).

The Organization Audit from the agency’s Flock Safety system, covering [DATE SIX MONTHS AGO] through the date this request is processed. Per Flock’s documentation, this report is available in the “Insights” tab and records searches performed by agency personnel.

The Network Audit from the agency’s Flock Safety system, covering the same period. Per Flock’s documentation, this report is available in the “Insights” tab and records searches of the agency’s cameras by outside agencies.

The agency’s current data-sharing settings, including the lists Flock labels “Networks that I’m sharing” and “Flock networks shared with me.”

The results of the agency’s most recent biennial ALPR audit, which are public under Minn. Stat. § 13.824, subd. 6(b).

If you withhold or redact any portion of these records, please cite the specific statutory basis for each withholding and release the remainder. Please note that Minn. Stat. § 13.03 does not permit charging for the cost of separating public from not-public data. If any fees apply, please send an itemized estimate before fulfilling the request.

Please confirm receipt of this request. Thank you for your time.

Then do three small things: save a copy of what you sent, note the date, and set a reminder for two weeks out. That reminder does more work than anything else in this playbook.

Step 5: Wait, and keep nudging

Agencies that move fast turn this around in days. Two to five weeks is common. Some drag on for months, usually the ones with something worth reading.

Here’s the rhythm to keep:

Week 2, no reply: send a short, friendly nudge. “Following up on my data request dated [date]. Could you confirm receipt and let me know when I can expect a response? Happy to clarify anything.”
Week 4, still nothing: nudge again, and add one sentence: “The Data Practices Act requires a response to public data requests in a prompt and reasonable time, so I’d appreciate a status update.”
Week 6: time for Step 7. You’ve been patient. The law noticed.

Stay polite the whole way. The records clerk didn’t buy the cameras, and most of them process these requests in good faith. Kindness costs nothing and speeds things up more often than you’d think. Being polite doesn’t mean giving up, though. Stay friendly and keep pressing.

Step 6: The roadblocks, and how to drive around them

Flock wrote its customers a guide on handling records requests. It suggests agencies consider redacting search reasons, negotiating narrower timeframes, and charging upfront fees. So when you hit one of these walls, know that it was built on purpose, and that requesters knock it down every week. Here’s the field guide.

“We don’t know how to export those logs.”

This happens constantly, even at agencies that have run cameras for years. Help them out. The audit reports live in the agency’s Flock admin dashboard, under the Insights tab, and download as spreadsheets in 31-day chunks. Their Flock account manager can walk them through it. An agency can’t dodge a request by declining to learn its own software.

“That’ll be $400.”

Ask for the itemized basis. Then remind them of three things: electronic copies of electronic data are the default, inspection is free, and the law bars charging for redaction time. If a real cost survives all that, ask to inspect the records for free first, then decide what’s worth copying once you’ve seen it. Fee estimates are a pressure test. Push back once and they routinely shrink.

“That’s a trade secret. Ask Flock.”

No. The Data Practices Act puts the duty on the government office, and it can’t hand that duty to a vendor. Cities across the country have released these exact contracts and logs. Hundreds of them are sitting on MuckRock and haveibeenflocked.com right now. Ask them to cite the specific statute that makes your city’s copy secret when everyone else’s is public.

“Denied. Investigative data.”

Some ALPR data does tie to active investigations, and that part can be withheld. The rest can’t. Point to Minn. Stat. § 13.824, subd. 7(c): the audit trail is public. Ask them to redact what the law actually covers and release the remainder. The law requires them to separate the two, not to toss the whole file.

“Can you narrow your request?”

Sometimes fair. Shrinking the search-log window from six months to three is a reasonable trade for speed. Dropping whole categories is a different matter. The contract, the policy, the camera list, and the audit results take minutes to produce. Hold the line on those.

A stack of paper. They printed the spreadsheets.

It’s happened. One agency printed the CSVs and scanned them back in. Reply that § 13.03 entitles you to the electronic version when they keep the data electronically, and re-request the native files.

Heavy redactions.

Ask for the statutory citation behind each redaction. And keep everything they send, exactly as they sent it. A log with the reasons blacked out is its own kind of answer. It tells the public the agency would rather fight than show why it searches. That’s a story too.

“We don’t have an ALPR program.”

Maybe true! Also maybe incomplete. Ask specifically about mobile readers on squad cars and any camera system with plate-reading features, and check whether the county runs cameras inside your city limits. Cross-check the BCA list and deflock.me. A written “we have none” is still a win. Pin it to the map.

Step 7: When you’re truly stuck, call in the state

Minnesota has a referee, and it’s free.

The Data Practices Office at the Department of Administration helps members of the public informally, by email or phone, with exactly this kind of standoff. Reach them at [email protected]. Often one email from you mentioning that you’ve contacted the DPO gets a stalled request moving.
A formal advisory opinion. If an agency denies you and you think they’re wrong, you can ask the Commissioner of Administration for a written opinion on your rights. It costs nothing. It isn’t binding, but agencies and courts take these opinions seriously, and the paper trail matters. One note: opinion requests can’t be anonymous, and you’ll want to include your original request and the agency’s response.
Beyond that, the law provides for court and administrative enforcement. If it comes to that, talk to us first, and consider reaching out to the ACLU of Minnesota. You will not be walking in there alone.

Step 8: You got records. Now what?

First: nice work. Seriously. Most people never ask. You asked, and now your city’s surveillance program has a public paper trail with your fingerprints on it.

Send everything to us at [email protected]. Include the raw files, exactly as received, plus any correspondence. We would love to publish your results for everyone to see.

Then, if you’re up for it, open the search logs yourself. They’re spreadsheets. The column that matters most is the reason, the text a person typed to justify each search. Scan it (Ctrl+F is plenty) for:

Immigration enforcement: ICE, CBP, HSI, ERO, immigration, deport. Local police have run thousands of searches on federal immigration agencies’ behalf, in Minnesota and everywhere else.
Protected activity: protest, rally, march, demonstration, or the names of churches, mosques, and activist groups. Watching who attends is surveillance of things the First Amendment protects.
Personal reasons: a person’s name as the entire reason, or reasons that read like somebody’s love life. Officers have used these systems to track exes and romantic interests again and again.
Vague or empty reasons: blank cells, “investigation,” “test,” “other.” Minnesota law demands a legitimate, specified, and documented purpose for every single search. Empty means noncompliant.
Missing case numbers: searches with no incident or case file attached. Same law, same problem.
Non-criminal uses: welfare check, residency check, repo, civil matter, noise complaint. Cities buy these cameras to fight violent crime. The logs show what officers reach for them to do.
Slurs and profiling: it’s in there more than you’d hope. Researchers found more than 80 agencies nationwide using an anti-Roma slur in their search reasons.

In the Network Audit, count how many searches came from agencies outside Minnesota, and note which states. Your neighbors will want to know that a department two time zones away can watch their commute.

Whatever you find is a data point nobody had yesterday. That includes a clean log. That includes a “we have no cameras.” Bring it to a council meeting. Hand it to a local reporter. Post it. The record is the argument.

You can do this

One more time, because it’s true: you can do this. The template does the legal phrasing. The state referees the disputes. The law already says the records are yours. All that’s missing is a neighbor willing to press send. In every city where someone pressed send, we learned something the cameras’ owners never planned to tell us.

We need eyes and hands in every city. Yours count.

This guide explains how Minnesota’s public records process generally works. It isn’t legal advice. One practical note before you file: records requests and the correspondence around them can themselves become public. Minnesota doesn’t require you to identify yourself when requesting public data, and a plain email address works fine if you’d rather keep a low profile.