Happy Wednesday! On this date in 2019, Ohio honored John Patterson Green, the Cleveland lawyer and politician who introduced a bill in 1890 to recognize Labor Day.

🌤️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 90 and a low of 75.

🎂 Happy birthday to our members Alex Kaufman and Christine Stephens!

Today's newsletter is 995 words — a 4-minute read.

The battle over police surveillance technology is escalating across Northeast Ohio, with opponents increasingly taking matters into their own hands.

Why it matters: The growing backlash puts Northeast Ohio communities in the middle of a national fight over mass surveillance and how collected data can be used and shared.

The latest: In Lorain County, someone has damaged or destroyed four of the county sheriff's 15 Flock automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), part of a growing nationwide trend.

• Meanwhile, activists across Cuyahoga County are taking to the streets, pressing city councils and school districts to sever ties with Flock.

The big picture: Flock has become the brand most closely associated with opposition to mass surveillance, but it's only one company in a rapidly expanding industry selling police cameras, drones, gunshot sensors and other devices, many of them plugged into national databases and enhanced by artificial intelligence.

What they're saying: "This flashy tech startup [Flock] is just the most visible symptom of a much, much deeper problem," Flock No Cleveland spokesperson Bryn Adams told Signal Cleveland last month.

Zoom out: The ACLU released a report this month examining the growing ALPR industry, including Flock competitors Motorola, Axon and Rekor.

Between the lines: The ACLU argues that communities "determined to deploy" license plate readers should impose strict limits on their use.

• "Just because Flock and Motorola do nationwide sharing and AI search doesn't mean that a police department needs to use" those capabilities, the ACLU's Jay Stanley writes.

The other side: Behind the scenes, Flock is actively promoting stories of its technology helping police solve crimes.

• Axios received an "ICYMI" email on Monday from Flock media relations highlighting a Bath Police arrest initiated after Flock cameras detected a stolen vehicle entering the community.
• "This is another example of how Flock technology helps investigators quickly get objective evidence and develop leads," a spokesperson wrote.

As for damaging Flock infrastructure? A Flock spokesperson tells Axios that behavior is illegal and "puts communities at risk."

• "When a camera is taken offline, an investigative lead can disappear, and a time-sensitive alert tied to an AMBER Alert, a missing-person case, or a violent crime suspect on the move may never reach the officers who need it."

What's next: The debate's next chapter will continue to be written in Cleveland, where the current contract with Flock for about 100 ALPRs was extended by six months in July after heated City Council debate.

• The city issued an RFP earlier this month for a longer-term contract covering an array of "intelligence-led policing technologies."

RTA's first new Rapid Transit railcar in more than 40 years has arrived in Cleveland, kicking off a years-long process of replacing the transit agency's aging fleet.

Why it matters: RTA's existing Red, Blue and Green Line cars are roughly four decades old, with recent breakdowns underscoring the urgency of the $435 million replacement program.

Zoom in: The new Siemens S200 cars, assembled in Sacramento, feature 52 seats, four wheelchair spaces, two bike racks and ice-cutting technology designed for Cleveland winters.

What they're saying: "This arrival is more than just new equipment; it's a promise kept to our riders," RTA CEO India Birdsong Terry said in a statement.

What's next: Upon arrival, each new railcar will undergo months of testing, including 1,000 miles without a major issue.

• The new trains are expected to enter Red Line service in summer 2027, followed by the Blue and Green lines in 2028.

🏀 The Cavs and sports streaming company DAZN have announced a multi-year broadcasting partnership beginning this season. Streaming packages start at $19.99 per month. (Cleveland.com)

⚖️ Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry has abandoned a plan to open a drop-in center for young people experiencing homelessness in Ohio City after neighbors bitterly fought the plan in court. (Ideastream)

🍕 Columbus-based pizzeria Mikey's Late Night Slice will open its first Cleveland location on West 25th Street sometime next year. (Cleveland Scene)

💬 Quote du jour: "I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn't come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone," wrote 20-year-old Haitian immigrant Pierre Damas Bel, before dying by suicide Monday.

• "Yet now I'm walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience." (Springfield News-Sun)

NASA launched the Roman Space Telescope on Sunday, one of the agency's biggest and most promising scientific endeavors in years.

Stunning stat: Roman's field of view is 100 times that of the esteemed Hubble telescope, meaning a single image from Roman will contain the visual data equivalent to 100 Hubble images.

Fun fact: Students and faculty at Ohio State spent more than a decade helping to design the telescope's surveys, calibrating its image detectors and developing tools to analyze the data it collects.

• Researchers from NASA Glenn weren't directly involved, but have worked to develop components used inside the telescope's Wide Field Instrument — the big infrared camera — including work to measure light from stars and other celestial bodies accurately.

What's next: NASA hopes data from Roman's five-year mission can help answer lingering questions about two of the universe's least-understood phenomena: dark energy and dark matter.

• It could also discover new worlds outside our own solar system.

Go deeper: NASA's Roman Space Telescope could unlock key mysteries of the universe

🤙 Sam is prepping for a guillotine league fantasy football draft tonight in which he's #16 in the 18-team draft order.

😷 Troy is fending off approximately two billion germs, courtesy of his sons.

This newsletter was edited by Delano Massey.