CLEVELAND — Cleveland’s plans to expand Flock technology in the city are on hold as mounting concerns force a hard look at the technology.
Late last year, the city wanted to push an emergency proposal through council without giving other companies a chance to bid.
Then the city pulled back on those plans.
Deadlines are coming up for the Flock technology currently in Cleveland, which is the company’s license plate readers. Cleveland’s contract with Flock ends in June.
But what may be even more pressing for the city is the ShotSpotter contract, which ends next month.
Cleveland proposed to expand Flock’s footprint, not just cameras seeing the streets, but also listening to, by adding gunshot detection technology.
"It’s such a big brother situation, it’s really scary,” flockno member Bryn Adams said.
The city doesn’t plan to renew ShotSpotter, which it once said saved at least 37 lives by getting police to shooting scenes faster.
"We want to ask the city to remove not renew,” Adams said.
Adams says the grassroots Cleveland group, flockno, began late last year when they heard about the emergency ordinance to expand Flock.
Last November, flockno sent Mayor Justin Bibb and council members an open letter with nearly 300 signatures to reconsider the relationship with Flock.
Read the letter here.
Adams says they want the city to remove all of Flock’s license plate readers from city streets.
"With the flockno team, we feel very strongly that surveillance is never going to make us safer, and we don’t want the city to be spending taxpayer dollars on something that may not even work,” Adams said.
Before the year ended, Safety Committee Chair Mike Polensek says the administration requested to shelve the Flock expansion plan, but he wasn’t told why.
He says it’s sitting in his box on an indefinite hold.
The city says that during initial talks, community members raised valid questions about the federal government’s access to Flock.
But says since 2023, the city has not received any requests from ICE to directly access the system.
Still, they paused the plan to expand to fully vet concerns.
"There are cameras all over. So that itself does not worry me or bother me at all. Now, what does bother me: who has access to the data,” Polensek said.
Flock says it does not have any contracts with ICE, its customers fully own and control 100% of their data, and have the sole authority over if, when and who they share it with.
"We’re going to keep pushing them to cut ties,” Adams said.
Flock says it’s proud of its impact in helping solve crime in Cleveland and looks forward to growing its successful relationship.
Adams says she does not believe Flock has a business incentive to make streets safer.
"They are a software-as-a-service provider. They make money by selling annual subscriptions. They can not continue to sell annual subscriptions if they eliminate crime,” Adams said.
Cleveland isn’t the only city in Northeast Ohio that uses Flock technology. Even CMSD has a contract with the company. The district says it uses Flock license plate readers as security in its parking lots.
