In 2022, Mayor Bibb pledged to form a panel to address concerns over cameras and high-tech tools. It’s finally set to happen.
At a September 2022 news conference, Mayor Justin Bibb discussed steps the city has taken to improve policing in the city. Cleveland police have faced numerous civil rights lawsuits and paid out millions to settle excessive force claims since 2010. On Feb. 6, Jakimah Dye, Cleveland's assistant safety director, sent emails seeking volunteers for a closed-door committee to meet March 25 to “increase communication, transparency and to provide updates on technology utilized by” police, records show.
Polensek told Dye he would like the technology committee to appear before the Safety Committee to discuss its work. Many other cities that fell under federal consent decree agreements to reform their troubled departments have become more transparent over the deployment of cameras and other technology.
The commission can also override police discipline decisions made by the safety director and police chief. The independent body of 13 members draws its budget from the city’s General Fund.The Bibb administration needs to act quickly to form the technology committee to prevent potential abuses, said Jason Goodrick, interim executive director of the Cleveland Community Police Commission.
On Aug. 8, the city installed its first Flock License Plate Reader Camera. Within two months, 100 of them were installed across the city at high-traffic intersections, records show. The total cost is $250,000. As of Feb. 15, the city has deployed 125 in-car dash cameras with license-plate readers. Another 175 cameras will be deployed later. Each camera costs nearly $6,300, totaling nearly $1.9 million.