Cleveland's Flock fight heads to city council
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
After pressure from Cleveland City Council members and activists, Mayor Justin Bibb on Monday said the administration would seek council approval for an extension of the city's contract with Flock Safety for automated license plate readers.
Why it matters: Bibb has drawn the ire of the council — especially the vocal safety committee chair, Mike Polensek — for extending contracts through the city's Board of Control, sidestepping council approval.
Flashback: Bibb extended the city's $850,000 contract with SoundThinking — the vendor of the gunshot-detection technology ShotSpotter — last month through an identical maneuver.
What they're saying: "It's called oversight, and I don't give a frick or frack who doesn't like it," Polensek told Signal Cleveland this week.
- He was reasserting council's authority after Safety Director Wayne Drummond asked for his blessing to renew the Flock contract without a council vote.
Zoom in: Bibb's letter warned that letting the Flock program lapse could hinder homicide and carjacking investigations, reduce stolen-vehicle recoveries and weaken efforts to locate missing people.
Friction point: Council's longstanding opposition to administrative spending has been reinforced in this case by broader public skepticism about Flock Safety, especially in light of recent revelations in Shaker Heights.
- A local activist group discovered, through public records requests, that hundreds of immigration-related searches had been conducted on Shaker Heights' Flock network by agencies outside Ohio.
Zoom in: An open letter from another activist group, the "Flock No Cle" campaign, criticized Bibb's "backchannel mechanism" for approving the extension and disputed claims about Flock's effectiveness.
- "We are told that Flock is an indispensable tool for solving crime, but the reality is, functioning democracies don't use dragnets to collect information indiscriminately on their residents," the letter reads.
The other side: Bibb appears to have heard at least part of the message.
- His letter to council said a legislative approach "appropriately honors the oversight role of council and ensures the community has a meaningful opportunity to weigh in on this public safety tool."
Yes, but: He nevertheless conveyed the "urgency of required action to prevent operational impact."
What's next: The legislation may not get a full vetting at Wednesday's safety hearing, but members of "Flock No Cle" have mobilized to attend and address council via public comment.