CLEVELAND — Cleveland takes a step closer to keeping its controversial Flock license plate readers. A shorter contract with Flock passed out of the city council safety committee on Tuesday. After a 5-2 vote, the committee sent an abbreviated Flock contract extension to the finance committee.
The extension comes with amendments, including a 6-month timeframe instead of one year at $125K, half the cost and restrictions about disclosure and a financial penalty.
"You folks had the opportunity to go out for an RFQ RFP a long time ago, and you didn’t do it,” said Council Member and Committee Chair Mike Polensek.
An RFQ and RFP are requests for quotes or proposals. A way for cities to solicit bids from vendors for contracts.
Cleveland Police Chief Annie Todd called it a good compromise.
The approval came after hours of public comment from both supporters and opponents.
“These cams should be disabled and taken down, and the fact that the city has allowed them to keep them running uninterrupted with no legal oversight is appalling,” Flock No’s Bryn Adams said.
“I can’t tell how much I believe surveillance is really important. And I also believe in our liberties, I think both of them can be in conjunction and work together," said Cleveland resident Fran Kalafatis.
New audit log data shows that in April and March of 2025, Cleveland’s Flock cameras were searched 297 times for immigration by 20 different agencies, including Parma.
Cleveland police activated a filter to stop immigration searches last November.
“The biggest thing is we don’t want to lose the technology, and if that means shutting everyone else out, that’s what we’re willing to do,” Todd said.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mike O’Malley sent the council a list of 98 cases where Cleveland’s Flock cameras helped.
O’Malley said that with just over 1,100 officers, Cleveland doesn’t have the manpower to solve crimes without license plate readers.
Cleveland police went year by year, sharing success stories and also noted that the case closure rate is much higher since Flock was introduced.
“We use our technology responsibly, and if someone does not use it responsibly, we hold them accountable,” Todd said.
The safety director said that they’re also developing a transparency portal for the public to see license plate reader data.
The city is now preparing to seek out new vendors.
“We were not going to give them a longer period of time in light of the growing concerns about the vendor. There are legitimate concerns about Flock. I heard those loud and clear,” Polensek said.
The Flock 6-month extension will be on the city council agenda at the July 15 meeting.
Flock issued the following statement:
"The Safety Committee’s vote to reverse its own decision from two weeks ago and recommend a 6-month contract extension with Flock Safety today is deeply disappointing. This outcome demonstrates a clear disregard for concerns expressed by the community, not to mention a profound lack of understanding of the threats posed by AI surveillance tools like Flock in a moment of rising authoritarianism.
The guardrails adopted via amendments to the ordinance do not change the fact that ultimately, this system is owned and controlled by a privately held corporation that has a documented history of sharing data with ICE, using customer data to test new features without authorization, and refusing to remove cameras even after cities have cancelled contracts. In this context, any oversight put in place by Cleveland is doomed to be partial and unreliable.
Furthermore, we have seen these exact sort of guardrails fail in other cities. One misconfigured filter, one dishonest officer, or the right pressure on the right people all render the proposed protections useless. Adding guardrails to a surveillance system designed first and foremost to share information is like putting lipstick on a pig.
ALPR systems and other mass surveillance technologies are the enemies of democracy, free speech, and personal liberty. They put vulnerable communities at risk. It is appalling to see a self-styled “progressive” city government facilitate the implementation and maintenance of this oppressive infrastructure in a moment when Haitian immigrants are being stripped of their temporary protected status; the FBI is raiding the homes of staff at a voter registration organization; and protestors and activists in Minnesota and Michigan are being targeted for exercising their right to free speech.
Flock No calls on City Council to reject the amended ordinance in its meeting on July 15th and remove all ALPRs from Cleveland streets."
