A question popped up recently in the Stillwater subreddit that caught our attention:
Is Stillwater safe?
The person asking wasn't debating police technology or city policy. They were considering staying downtown and had heard some pretty alarming claims about homelessness, crime, and whether Stillwater had changed.
Locals quickly jumped into the conversation with very different experiences.
That got us wondering: instead of arguing from impressions, what do the numbers actually say about safety in Stillwater?
And once you start looking, there's another interesting layer to the story.
Stillwater recently installed a network of Flock Safety cameras — and residents are having their own debate about whether those cameras make the community safer or simply create another form of surveillance.
Those are actually three different questions, and they shouldn't be confused with one another.
Layer 1: Is Stillwater actually safe?
Let's start with the question someone considering visiting, living in, or moving to Stillwater probably cares about most.
What's the actual crime picture?
Recent FBI-based crime data paints a much calmer picture than some of the rhetoric online.
CityRating's compilation of FBI data shows Stillwater's 2025 violent-crime rate was roughly 65% below the Minnesota average, while property crime was roughly 40% below the state average.
NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI data estimates the annual chance of becoming a victim of violent crime in Stillwater at approximately 1 in 1,200.
That doesn't mean crime doesn't happen here. It does.
It also doesn't mean every person will feel equally comfortable in every situation.
But there's an important distinction between feeling that a community has changed and evidence that it has become broadly unsafe.
The available crime statistics don't support the idea that Stillwater has suddenly become a dangerous city.
Layer 2: Why are people talking about safety now?
This is where the conversation becomes more interesting.
Stillwater operates 17 Flock automated license-plate readers, along with 20 pan-tilt-zoom video cameras, with additional cameras planned.
The license-plate readers photograph passing vehicles and record information such as the plate, vehicle characteristics, time, and location.
According to the city, the system does not use facial recognition.
The plate-reader data is generally retained for 30 days. Searches require a documented law-enforcement purpose and are logged.
Stillwater also changed its sharing policy in September 2026, removing access for out-of-state agencies and limiting sharing to approved Minnesota agencies.
So the cameras aren't really evidence that Stillwater is unsafe.
They're better understood as part of a much larger question communities across the country are wrestling with:
How much surveillance are residents comfortable accepting in exchange for another law-enforcement tool?
That's a very different question.
Layer 3: Do Flock cameras actually make Stillwater safer?
This is where things become less certain.
Early research on fixed automated license-plate readers has found promising results for certain vehicle-related crimes.
One recent study found an 11% reduction in motor-vehicle theft, a 15.9% increase in motor-vehicle-theft arrests, and somewhat faster recovery of stolen vehicles following deployment.
But researchers and civil-liberties advocates have questioned how much of that improvement can definitively be attributed to the cameras themselves.
That's an important limitation.
A license-plate reader can potentially help police locate a stolen vehicle or identify a vehicle connected to an investigation.
It cannot stop an assault occurring downtown.
It cannot tell you whether walking along the river at night feels comfortable.
And it certainly can't answer the much bigger question:
“Would I want to live here?”
So what does all of this tell us about Stillwater?
Probably something more nuanced than either side of an internet argument.
The available crime data portrays Stillwater as a relatively safe community.
At the same time, residents are having a legitimate conversation about policing, privacy, homelessness, development, tourism, and how downtown is changing.
And the Flock cameras sit right in the middle of that conversation.
Maybe that's why the original Reddit question is worth paying attention to.
People considering Stillwater aren't looking at crime statistics in isolation.
They're trying to understand what it actually feels like to live here.
That's the question we're interested in at Twin Cities East Metro.
Not whether Stillwater is perfect.
Not whether every concern raised online is right or wrong.
But what the numbers say, what neighbors are experiencing, and what is changing in the community — so you can make up your own mind.
Follow the Oct 20 City Council discussion about surveillance data contracts.
What do you think?
If you live in Stillwater, has your perception of safety changed over the last few years?
And separately: do the Flock cameras make you feel safer, less comfortable, or neither?
We'd genuinely like to hear how people who actually live here see it.
Twin Cities East Metro explores what it's like to live near the water in Mahtomedi, White Bear Lake, Stillwater, Hudson and the surrounding St. Croix Valley. We follow the conversations happening in these communities, check them against the available facts, and add the local context that can get lost online.