Public Safety: Prepared, Responsive, and Accountable

Effective public safety begins with a professional, appropriately staffed, well-trained Police Department that has the trust of the community it serves.

Champlin already has a strong tradition of community policing through programs and activities that bring officers and residents together outside of emergencies. Those relationships matter. Public safety works best when residents know their officers, officers understand the community they serve, and people feel comfortable contacting police when they need help. ²

Calls for police service remain considerably higher than they were a decade ago, even after declining from their peak several years ago. Champlin has responded by increasing police staffing and resources. ^1 3

Going forward, decisions about staffing should be driven by actual workload, response needs, officer safety, and the types of calls officers are being asked to handle rather than simply assuming that every increase in calls requires the same kind of response.

We should provide our police officers with the resources they need while also asking an important question:

Are we sending the right professional to the right call?

One area where I believe Champlin should continue developing its public-safety response is behavioral health.

Champlin already partners with Hennepin County to provide an embedded social worker, and that program has grown since it began. I support continuing that partnership. ^3 4

But an embedded social worker who receives referrals and provides follow-up services is different from having behavioral-health expertise available during an active crisis.

As Mayor, I would work collaboratively with the Champlin Police Department, Hennepin County, and other partners to determine whether a dedicated behavioral-health co-response model is appropriate for our community.

A co-response model does not replace police officers.

When someone presents an immediate danger, a crime has occurred, or the situation is uncertain, law enforcement should respond. But there are also situations where an officer and behavioral-health professional responding together may provide a safer and more effective intervention than relying on law enforcement alone.

The goal is simple:

Match the response to the need.

That need exists throughout our community. The increasing number of congregate-care and residential-care settings in Champlin is one part of that conversation, particularly when individual locations generate repeated calls for service, but behavioral-health crises are certainly not limited to those facilities. ⁴

Before making long-term staffing decisions, I also believe we need better information about how frequently the existing embedded social worker is used, what types of calls are being referred, what outcomes the program is producing, and where gaps remain between crisis response and follow-up care.

Public safety and compassion are not competing values. Done well, each strengthens the other.

Technology can help law enforcement solve crimes and protect people. It can also give government powers that deserve careful scrutiny.

Champlin currently uses automated license plate reader technology, including Flock Safety and Axon systems. ^6 7

These systems are much more than traditional traffic cameras.

Automated license plate readers can systematically record a vehicle, its license plate, where it was located, and when it was there. When those individual observations are collected across multiple cameras and jurisdictions, they can create a searchable record of vehicle movements. ⁵

That makes ALPR technology surveillance technology, and I believe we should be willing to call it that.

There are legitimate law-enforcement uses for this technology. License plate readers have been used around the country to locate stolen vehicles, identify vehicles connected with serious crimes, locate missing or endangered people, and assist major investigations. ⁵

But a technology being useful does not automatically mean government should use it.

Every expansion of government surveillance requires us to weigh the potential public-safety benefit against individual liberty, privacy, cost, and the possibility of misuse.

I trust the members of the Champlin Police Department. My concerns about Flock are not based on a belief that our officers are improperly using the system.

My concern is much larger than Champlin.

Flock is part of an interconnected network through which law-enforcement agencies can potentially search vehicle information collected far outside their own jurisdictions. Recent reporting in Minnesota has raised serious questions about ALPR information being searched in connection with federal immigration enforcement during Operation Metro Surge and about how local data can move through other law-enforcement agencies. ^6 8

That raises questions I believe Champlin residents deserve answers to:

Who can access information collected by Champlin's cameras?

Which agencies have actually searched that information?

For what purposes?

Has Champlin-generated information been accessed directly or indirectly by federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement?

Once information is shared with another agency, what protections continue to follow it?

How long can another agency retain information it has obtained?

And what ability does Champlin actually have to control what happens to residents' information after it leaves our system?

Minnesota law contains important protections governing ALPR information, and Champlin's independent audits have generally found compliance with those requirements. Those protections matter. ^{5 6 7 9}

But laws and local policies are only meaningful if the technology and the broader network surrounding it allow those protections to be reliably enforced.

That remains an unresolved concern for me.

Flock has announced additional safeguards, including shorter default retention periods and tighter controls around searches and data sharing. Those are positive changes, but they do not resolve the fundamental question of what happens when information is shared outside the agency that originally collected it. ¹⁰

A shorter retention period at Flock does not necessarily erase information already obtained and retained by another agency.

I have requested additional public records from the City so residents can better understand Champlin's actual sharing configuration, outside-agency searches, contracts, costs, federal access, and documented public-safety outcomes.

Based on what I know today, I have significant concerns about Champlin's continued participation in the Flock network.

Before I could support continuing or renewing that technology, I would need much greater confidence that residents' information cannot be used for purposes inconsistent with Minnesota law, Champlin's values, or the reasons the technology was originally purchased.

Residents should not have to simply trust that surveillance technology is being used responsibly.

Government should be able to demonstrate it.

At a minimum, residents should have meaningful public information about who has access to Champlin's ALPR data, the general purposes for which outside agencies are accessing it, how frequently it is accessed, what safeguards are in place, what the technology costs, and what measurable public-safety outcomes it produces.

That transparency can protect legitimate active investigations. A department conducting an active investigation does not need to publicly disclose sensitive investigative details. But residents can still be told, for example, that another Minnesota law-enforcement agency accessed Champlin information in connection with an active criminal investigation.

Transparency and effective policing are not mutually exclusive.

Public safety does not begin and end with policing.

Champlin shares fire and emergency response services through the Anoka-Champlin Fire Department. That partnership provides an important service to both communities, and our firefighters and emergency responders deserve our support. ¹¹

At the same time, the demands placed on the department have changed.

Overall call volume is substantially higher than it was a decade ago, and the department has experienced recruitment and retention challenges common to many combination and paid-on-call fire departments. A significant portion of today's department is also relatively new to the profession. ^1 11 12

None of that means our fire department is failing.

It means we should be planning ahead.

I want Champlin and Anoka to continue evaluating staffing, recruitment and retention, training, EMT capacity, equipment replacement, mutual aid, and the long-term sustainability of the department's staffing model.

The worst time to begin planning for a workforce shortage is after it has already become a crisis.

The most serious emergencies rarely stop at municipal borders.

Champlin depends on partnerships with neighboring police and fire departments, Hennepin County, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Minnesota State Patrol, emergency medical services, and other regional partners.

The extraordinary multiagency response following the June 2025 attacks on Minnesota lawmakers demonstrated both the importance and complexity of that cooperation. ¹³

Champlin participated in commissioning an independent after-action review of that regional response. When those findings are available, they should be used to strengthen emergency communications, mutual aid, interoperability, training, command coordination, and preparation for future critical incidents. ¹³

After-action reviews matter only if we are willing to learn from them.

There is a common thread connecting policing, behavioral-health response, fire and EMS, emergency preparedness, and public-safety technology:

trust.

Residents entrust local government and public-safety agencies with tremendous responsibility and authority.

Government earns that trust by being transparent about how that authority is exercised.

Residents should be able to understand what public-safety programs cost, what technology the City uses, what information is collected, how that information is protected, what independent audits find, and whether programs are achieving what they were intended to accomplish.

Accountability is not an attack on our public-safety professionals.

It supports them.

Good policies protect residents, protect officers and other responders, and strengthen confidence in the institutions that serve us.

1. Strengthening behavioral-health response. I will work with the Champlin Police Department, Hennepin County, and community partners to evaluate and pursue a behavioral-health co-response model appropriate for Champlin while continuing to support our existing embedded social-worker partnership.

2. Maintaining strong police services and community policing. I will support appropriate staffing, training, equipment, officer safety, and the community relationships that help make effective policing possible. Staffing decisions should be tied to actual calls, workload, and community needs.

3. Bringing greater transparency and accountability to surveillance technology. I will require meaningful public review of ALPR and other surveillance technologies, including their effectiveness, cost, retention practices, data-sharing arrangements, outside-agency access, audit findings, and impact on privacy and civil liberties. Based on what I know today, I have serious concerns about continued use of Flock Safety and believe those concerns must be resolved before the City continues or expands its participation in the system.

4. Planning proactively for fire and EMS needs. I will work with Anoka and the Anoka-Champlin Fire Department to ensure staffing, recruitment, retention, training, equipment, and the department's long-term service model remain capable of meeting the needs of a growing and changing community.

5. Strengthening regional preparedness and learning from major incidents. I will support strong mutual-aid relationships, joint training, interoperable communications, emergency planning, and transparent follow-through on recommendations from independent after-action reviews.

Public safety should never be reduced to a slogan.

A safe community is one where residents trust those who serve them, first responders have the resources they need, people experiencing crises receive the right response, technology is subject to meaningful limits, individual rights are respected, and government remains accountable for the power entrusted to it.

That is the kind of public-safety system I want us to continue building in Champlin.

Superscript numbers in the statement link directly to the source material below.

1. 1.City of Champlin - 2025 Financial Report https://www.champlinmn.gov/Archive.aspx?ADID=1102
2. 2.Champlin Police Department - Community Programs and Annual Events https://www.champlinmn.gov/199/Police
3. 3.City of Champlin - 2026 Adopted Budget https://www.champlinmn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/4534
4. 4.City of Champlin - March 31, 2026 Coalition Statement on Congregate Care https://www.champlinmn.gov/CivicSend/ViewMessage/message/286537
5. 5.Champlin Police Department - Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Policy, Section 413 https://www.champlinmn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2908
6. 6.Champlin Police Department - 2025 ALPR Audit (Flock), Minnesota Security Consortium https://www.lrl.mn.gov/docs/2025/mandated/251685.pdf
7. 7.Champlin Police Department - 2025 ALPR Audit (AXON), Minnesota Security Consortium https://www.lrl.mn.gov/docs/2025/mandated/251686.pdf
8. 8.Star Tribune - Police searched Twin Cities area license plate cameras for immigration enforcement during ICE surge https://www.startribune.com/police-search-immigration-twin-cities-flock-license-plate-cameras-ice-dhs-metro-surge/601807825
9. 9.Minnesota Statutes section 13.824 - Automated License Plate Readers https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/13.824
10. 10.The Verge - Flock CEO: 'We got this one wrong' https://www.theverge.com/policy/979339/flock-ceo-audits-data-retention
11. 11.Anoka-Champlin Fire Department - Our History and Staffing Model https://www.anokachamplinfire.org/149/Our-History
12. 12.Anoka-Champlin Fire Board - April 15, 2026 Regular Meeting Agenda https://www.anokachamplinfire.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04152026-64
13. 13.City of Champlin - Minnesota law enforcement agencies request an after-action review following the June 14 lawmaker attacks https://www.champlinmn.gov/CivicSend/ViewMessage/message/275513