Cleveland mayor plans to renew Flock’s contract despite concerns, allegations

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb recently announced that the city will renew its contract with Flock.

The camera system gained notoriety after some local residents alleged that the company shares its surveillance with federal immigration authorities so that they would deport immigrants.

The current contract expires in June, and Cleveland Safety Director Wayne Drummond told Cleveland.com that the city would not want to forego the technology installed in 2023. Since then, it has helped solve crimes by taking photos of cars and storing them in a database so law enforcement can access them and find criminal suspects.

Drummond, however, admitted that Cleveland residents who are concerned about Flock providing vehicle information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be able to receive answers to their questions. Drummond said the local police will address these concerns at the council’s public safety committee on Wednesday.

“All those things will be addressed,” he said, according to Cleveland.com.

Drummond also said that the city officials do not know if they will renew the contract with the company for another one or two years.

Even though the council would not vote on the proposal because Bibb is allowed by law to renew contracts without the council’s approval, Councilman Mike Polensek demanded Flock’s renewal be presented to the council, expressed his desire to hear Drummond’s comments regarding whether the city should prolong the contract with Flock basec on the system being “beneficial in apprehending violent criminals,” and said that the city must address the concerns of the local residents.

Polensek added that he has nothing against the city collaborating with Flock “as long as there’s transparency and it’s not being abused,” according to the news source.

Local residents opposed the city’s collaboration with the company, creating the “Flock, No” movement to urge Cleveland officials to cut ties with Flock due to allegations of privacy intrusion and of the company collaborating with ICE, with Councilman Tanmay Shah supporting the movement.

“The Administration should stand by its commitments to Cleveland residents, move decision-making about major surveillance contracts to more transparent and democratic channels, and stop spending our scarce resources on costly, buzzy technologies that do nothing to actually make our communities safer,” the activists said in the statement, according to the news source. “Cities all across the country are pulling the plug on Flock Safety, and we should do the same here in Cleveland.”

Flock, No also released an open letter to Bibb and Polensek, urging them to “bring Cleveland residents into the conversation about the tools and technologies being used in our name.”

Columbus authorities previously criticized Flock too for the same reasons. Meanwhile, the city of Dayton shut down its Flock cameras after it was allegedly revealed that the data was used to assist immigration authorities.

Activists in Shaker Heights, a Cleveland suburb, also allegedly discovered that the city’s Flock data was used to deport immigrants, according to another report by Cleveland.com.