Seven cameras that scan and record the license plates of every passing vehicle have been installed this year at intersections in Stillwater, and more are coming.

Stillwater Police Chief Brian Mueller said another 11 Flock Safety automatic license-plate readers are expected to be installed throughout the city by the end of the year.

A Flock Safety license-plate reader, which helps police track vehicles involved in crimes, mounted on a light pole at the intersection of Maryknoll Drive and 75th Street North in Stillwater. (Courtesy of Stillwater Police Department)

The solar-powered license-plate readers are meant to act as a deterrent to anyone considering committing a crime in the city, Mueller said; the readers will not be used for speed-limit enforcement.

In addition, 24 fixed surveillance cameras – 20 downtown and four in other parts of the city – will be installed soon. Four of those cameras and two Flock license-plate readers will be placed in the city-owned parking ramp downtown, he said.

In all, 24 cameras and 18 license-plate readers are expected to be deployed around the city, Mueller said.

The extra security measures are needed now that downtown Stillwater has become a major tourism destination, Mueller said.

“It’s an entertainment district,” Mueller said. “The tourism, the people who are in the bars and restaurants, people who are coming to events, that’s what’s happening downtown – and that’s a different policing model than like a mall in Woodbury or some other gathering place.”

People who go to other entertainment districts around the country – such as Nashville or New Orleans – fully expect to be on camera, Mueller said, and people visiting Stillwater should have the same expectation. “Hopefully, that is a deterrent moving forward,” he said.

Civil liberties concerns

But groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have raised concerns about automated license-plate readers, saying Flock and other mass-surveillance systems have severe privacy implications.

“The system is growing not just in numbers, but also in power and intrusiveness,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project in Washington, D.C. “Every customer of Flock that shares their data with other departments is contributing to a nationwide surveillance network of Orwellian proportions.”

Stanley also raised concerns about officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement accessing and using data collected by Flock Safety’s automated license-plate readers.

“It’s been an issue around the country where some of the more liberal communities that have decided as a policy matter not to cooperate with ICE are finding to their surprise that their police department is collecting a lot of information on the comings and goings of their residents, and that ICE is able to search that,” he said. “Once you create records of where people are going and at what time, it’s not always easy to control who’s accessing that and for what purposes.”

But Mueller said he expects the cameras to help solve crimes in Stillwater and elsewhere.

If an event occurs like the one that happened in Waukesha, Wis., in December 2021, when the driver of an SUV plowed into a crowd of people at the city’s annual Christmas parade, killing five and injuring 48 others, “we can pull up those cameras live time and start utilizing them in a command post,” Mueller said.

Cameras also would have been instrumental in helping police figure out what happened to George Musser in 2022, Mueller said. Musser, 20, of Stillwater, was seen leaving Brian’s Bar around 2:10 a.m. Christmas Eve. His body was found around 7 p.m. on Christmas Day about two miles from the bar in Baytown Township.

“I don’t know that with this camera system, we would have been able to save his life, but I do feel confident that with a more robust camera system, we would have been on his trail a little bit sooner,” Mueller said.

How it works

The Stillwater City Council last year approved spending $222,500 for the cameras and license-plate readers, installation and the first-year annual recurring cost for upkeep and maintenance. The annual upkeep cost will increase once the license-plate readers and cameras are installed in the parking ramp.

The city has received two grants – one for $27,000, the other for $21,000 – to help cover the cost. The grants are from Washington County Emergency Management, which utilizes the Urban Area Security Initiative, a federal grant program, to enhance its emergency-preparedness capabilities, Mueller said.

Here’s how the motion-activated Flock cameras work: They identify and take a snapshot of the critical details of a vehicle that passes by it. The cameras capture the make, vehicle type, color, license plate (full, partial or missing), and various vehicle features, including damage and after-market alterations.

The program alerts officers to stolen or wanted vehicles, stolen license plates and missing persons. It also can be used as an investigative tool to search for vehicles involved in criminal activity, Mueller said.

Police officers last week arrested someone who was driving through town who had a warrant out for his arrest, Mueller said. “That’s the end goal: We catch bad guys, utilizing this.”

According to data in Flock’s “transparency portal,” which is linked to the city’s website, the existing license-plate readers in Stillwater have detected 167,614 vehicles over the past 30 days. Using information from the cameras, officers conducted 26 vehicle searches in that period.

Law enforcement agencies that use Flock can connect with other Flock-equipped agencies around the country to locate suspects, said Stillwater police Capt. Hunter Julien, who is overseeing the implementation of the program.

“Basically, the huge benefit of having Flock is the access you get with other agencies nationwide,” Julien said. “For example, if someone commits whatever crime in Stillwater and flees the state or area in a vehicle, we can track that vehicle as it moves through the state or country if it passes other agencies’ Flock cameras. I can think of many times we could have used this in the past if we had this system for serious crimes.”

Once all the Flock cameras and license-plate readers are installed, a map of their exact locations will be published on the city’s website.

“We want this to be public. We want this to be transparent,” Mueller said. “We want the public to know where all of these cameras are. They’re not going to be hidden. We want to publicize that there are cameras downtown, so none of this is quiet or Big Brother or secret stuff happening. We want everyone to know that our intention is to make downtown a safe area to come visit and hang out in.”

The Flock transparency portal linked to in the city’s website spells out what is detected (license plates, vehicles) and what isn’t (facial recognition, people, gender, race).

“Data is used for law enforcement purposes only,” the portal states. “Data is owned by the Stillwater Police Department and is never sold to third parties.”

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Prohibited uses include immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation, usage based solely on a protected class (i.e. race, sex, religion) and personal use, the portal states.

All data will be deleted from the system after 30 days unless it is being used in an active investigation, Julien said.

The cameras and license-plate readers are being installed on stoplights, city-owned light poles and special “Flock poles” erected to house a camera or license-plate reader. Police had hoped to have some of the cameras installed downtown before this weekend’s Lumberjack Days, the city’s popular summer music festival, but Flock officials were not able to schedule the installation on the city’s new LED streetlights in time, Julien said.

The cameras should be installed within the next few months, he said.

Other cities using cameras

Other communities in the area have installed or will be installing Flock Safety cameras, including Hudson, Wis., Forest Lake and Woodbury.

Woodbury has had license-plate readers installed in different commercial and shopping areas of the city for the past two years, said Cmdr. Tom Ehrenberg of the Woodbury Public Safety Department.

“We have 17 now, and we’ve had a ton of success with them,” he said. “They’re not in residential areas. They’re only checking the back side of the vehicle, not the front, so there is no concern for profiling individuals. It’s just the vehicle. It really is just to alert us to higher-level crimes like stolen vehicles and assaults.”

Eighteen Flock Safety license-plate readers have been installed in Hudson, mostly at entry points into the city and along main thoroughfares, including Vine Street and Crest View Drive, said Police Chief Geoff Willems. “They have been instrumental in solving crimes for us,” Willems said. “There are too many success stories to even remember. Those, coupled with our 16 traffic video cameras, have solved countless crimes.”

Forest Lake officials are in the process of having 13 license-plate readers installed throughout the city and three cameras installed in city parks, said Capt. Luke Hanegraaf of the Forest Lake Police Department. Final permits are being processed, and the readers and cameras should be up and running in August, he said.

Twelve Flock automatic license-plate readers will be installed in Cottage Grove by the end of the year. The exact locations are still being determined, said Phil Jents, a spokesman for the city.

Officials in St. Mary’s Point voted in 2022 to install four Flock license-plate readers, but then decided to cancel the order after receiving pushback from residents, said City Clerk/Administrator Cindie Reiter.

The ACLU’s Stanley said he is optimistic that communities will eventually reject the use of mass-surveillance technology like license-plate readers.

“I’m optimistic long term about privacy,” he said. “I think that people do, after a while, start to push back. It takes a long time for people to really become aware of new privacy intrusions. It takes a while for people to become aware of how it can affect them. The arc of history is long, but it bends towards privacy. I think what we’ve seen historically is that over time, people do eventually start to push back and to reclaim the freedom that they once had to not feel like they’re being watched every minute.”

New mobile barriers

Another Stillwater safety measure: Pitagone F18 Mobile Vehicle Barriers to be used at events like the World Snow Sculpting Championship, the Fourth of July and Lumberjack Days.

“We have a lot of events held in Lowell Park, and our whole goal is to separate vehicles from people. You know those don’t mix,” Mueller said. “We’re trying to build that barricade around where the people are versus where the vehicles are.”

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The 75 barriers, which are designed to stop or significantly slow down vehicles, will help protect people from any possible “directed, intentional terrorist attack or from someone who’s trying to do harm,” he said, but also from anyone who has a medical event behind the wheel or loses control of their vehicle.

“Tragic things happen,” he said. “It’s not just someone trying to kill people.”

The police department spent $200,000 on the new mobile vehicle barriers, Mueller said.

The bright red and yellow barriers won’t stop vehicles “dead in their tracks,” he said. “It’s going to roll under, hit the engine, basically the drive train, and make the vehicle inoperable. So it’s not immediate, but it’s going to stop you in short order versus just continuing on through people.”

Just in time for thousands of people to pour into St. Paul for the second day of the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival on Harriet Island, Metro Transit announced that the Green Line had reopened Saturday afternoon, nearly two days ahead of schedule.

“Good news! Green Line construction ended early and trains are now operating regularly from Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul. If you are headed to the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival this weekend, review all your transit options,” Metro Transit posted to its website around mid-day Saturday.

All 13 light rail stations in St. Paul went offline for track maintenance on the night of July 11, and were not officially scheduled to reopen until early Monday morning. The scheduling, which took St. Paul officials by surprise this month, drew some sharp words from St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s office to Metro Transit and the Metropolitan Council, the regional planning agency that oversees the transit authority.

The three-day music festival, which is expected to draw some 30,000 fans daily, opened Friday with Hozier, Sheryl Crow, Train and nine other bands, and continued Saturday with big name acts Weezer and Fall Out Boy. Green Day, Sublime, 311, The Beaches and others were scheduled to perform to a sold-out crowd on Sunday. This is the festival’s second year on Harriet Island.

Metro Transit has posted more transit information online at metrotransit.org.

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The Timberwolves’ Summer League season reached its conclusion in the consolation round Saturday in Las Vegas. Minnesota didn’t lose a game in pool play, but missed out on the semifinals thanks to point differential.

But there is plenty for Minnesota to dissect after a couple weeks of Summer League play, with much of the incoming information looking positive. Here are a few things to take away from Minnesota’s time in Las Vegas.

Not too much

Yes, it’s the antithesis of this entire article, which will dive into various aspects of the last two weeks and “what it means” for Minnesota’s future. But it’s more a sense of what it could mean. Because, in reality, it may mean very little.

Terrence Shannon Jr. will be discussed below. And he was dominant during his Summer League run for Minnesota. But he will also turn 25 years old at the end of the month, and dominating this level of competition can mean very little.

For instance, 22-year-old Jaylen Nowell dominated the 2022 Summer League for Minnesota four years ago. Bones Hyland was equally great that summer at the age of 20. Those summers weren’t exactly launch pads to NBA prominence.

It’s better to play well in Las Vegas than the alternative, but also worth noting all results should be consumed with a grain of salt.

Shannon shines

That said, Shannon was excellent for Minnesota, as expected. He scored with relative ease, was part of Minnesota’s overall harassing defense and just looked bigger, faster and stronger than his competition on a night to night basis. It was a continuation of a rookie campaign in which the wing shined in most of his presented opportunities.

Minnesota tasked Shannon with more playmaking in Las Vegas, and he showed an aptitude to do so at a passable level. He was, occasionally, a little too turnover happy — any thought of him starting alongside Anthony Edwards as the sole two guards in the lineup anytime soon would be ill-advised — but Shannon does seem to be getting to the point where he can use his physical prowess to not only create opportunities for himself, but others.

He figures to open next season with a role in the rotation, and looks ready for it.

Beringer brings it

In a stunning defensive display, Joan Beringer had seven blocked shots in his Summer League debut. The dominance wasn’t quite as prevalent from there, but it’s easy to see the Wolves’ front office’s vision for the 18-year-old center, whom Minnesota selected No. 17 overall in June’s draft.

Beringer is able to cover a lot of ground defensively, effectively covering pick and rolls in multiple schemes. He’s also a dangerous rim runner who opened up the Wolves’ lob game.

Regardless of how much opportunity is available to the Frenchman in next year’s NBA season — and there may be little — the Summer League synopsis of his game had to leave onlookers encouraged about what’s to come.

What is Dillingham’s fit?

Rob Dillingham was excellent in the second half of Minnesota’s victory over Phoenix on Wednesday, as he got ultra aggressive offensively to rally the Wolves to a win. It was the point guard’s best stint of the summer.

What was notable about that was it came in the game in which Shannon didn’t play.

Minnesota was clear about its wishes for Dillingham to be more of a distributing point guard in Las Vegas, but it remains obvious that’s not the best version of Dillingham at the moment. He’s a dynamic scorer, the type of which is usually best suited for a sixth-man role unless you are the elite of the elite. Is that the role Dillingham will eventually assume on the team?

Identity determined

Minnesota’s Summer League team was defensively dominant and played with great energy and purpose. In that way, it mirrored what the NBA club has established.

That the guys who have been sitting on the end of the bench for the last year or two can so closely mimic what they’ve been watching is a testament to the organization’s established identity and the buy-in that’s been created.

Such performances in Las Vegas should only increase Timberwolves coach Chris Finch’s confidence that if and when the time strikes for Minnesota’s “young guys” to be more heavily leaned upon in the NBA rotation, he can pull those levers without fear that Minnesota will lose itself as a team.

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Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb

Sudden wealth can arrive in many forms — an inheritance, the sale of a business, a legal settlement, or even a lottery win. Whatever the source, a financial windfall offers a rare opportunity — not just to improve your own financial security, but to create meaningful, lasting change.

But before you do anything, take a breath.

Pause before you spend

The most important first step, and often the most difficult for an investor, is to do nothing fast. Emotions run high after a financial surprise — good or bad — and quick decisions can lead to regrets. We often recommend waiting at least a few weeks and even up to a year before making any major moves. During that time, assemble a team: a financial adviser, tax professional and estate attorney. Together, they’ll help you create a plan that aligns with both your values and long-term needs.

Secure your financial foundation

Once the dust settles, start by reinforcing the basics. Use part of the windfall to pay off high-interest debt — credit cards or personal loans, for example. Then make sure your emergency fund is solid: aim for six to 12 months of living expenses in an accessible account.

Don’t forget insurance. A larger net worth can bring greater liability, so it’s wise to review your home, health, life and umbrella insurance coverage. Peace of mind is one of the best purchases you can make.

Invest for the future

A sudden influx of cash can be the seed of long-term financial independence — if invested wisely. Max out retirement accounts like IRAs, Roth IRAs or 401(k)s. Consider tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSAs) if you qualify.

Depending on the size of your windfall, you may have the wherewithal to explore more advanced investment strategies. But with added complexity and higher fees, you’ll need to tread carefully.

Rather than investing everything at once, work with your adviser to develop a diversified plan tailored to your goals and time horizon. And be cautious about putting too much into a single stock, property or “hot tip” from a friend.

Give with purpose during your lifetime

Beyond personal gain, a windfall is a powerful opportunity to give back — and to do so thoughtfully. Many people choose to give during their lifetime, allowing them to see the results of their generosity in real time.

Vehicles such as Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) allow you to set aside money for charitable giving, receive an immediate tax deduction and then distribute the funds over time. You can also donate appreciated assets, such as stocks or real estate, directly to charity, avoiding capital gains tax and increasing the impact from your generosity.

Focus your giving on causes that resonate with you. Whether it’s education, environmental conservation, health care or the arts, targeted philanthropy tends to be more effective — and more personally rewarding.

Evaluate impact, not just emotion

While generosity is noble, it’s even better when it’s strategic. Look for nonprofits with strong track records and measurable outcomes. Ask: What kind of impact is this organization having? How is it tracked? Can my gift be multiplied through matching grants or collaboration?

Leave a meaningful legacy

A windfall also gives you a chance to think long-term. Updating your will and estate plan ensures your assets go where you want. Consider charitable trusts or endowments that continue to support your values after you’re gone.

Most importantly, talk to your loved ones. Share not just your plans, but your purpose. What matters most to you? What do you want your wealth — and your life — to stand for?

Receiving a windfall can feel overwhelming, but it’s also a tremendous privilege. Used wisely, it can provide security, fund dreams and create real lasting good in the world, and security for your family. The key is to move slowly, plan carefully and give intentionally.

In the end, it’s not just about having more. It’s about using more — for good.

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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb are financial advisers at Wealth Enhancement Group and co-hosts of “Your Money” on WCCO 830 AM on Sunday mornings. Email Bruce and Peg at yourmoney@wealthenhancement.com. Advisory services offered through Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC, a registered investment adviser and affiliate of Wealth Enhancement Group.