Streetsboro City Council is looking into flock cameras after Police Chief Patricia Wain said they were necessary to solve crimes.
Council members who work in the police and criminal justice fields − including Councilwoman Jen Wagner, a police dispatcher, and Councilman Steve Michniak, an assistant prosecutor with the Portage County Prosecutor’s Office − hailed their ability to help solve crimes faster.
But one council member said at a July 13 meeting that he won’t support them unless a policy is in place to prevent their abuse.
“This is government mass surveillance of its citizenry. It just is,” said Councilman Justin Ring, who cast the lone no vote.
While City Council approved a first reading of an ordinance authorizing the cameras, the body didn’t approve an “emergency clause,” providing more time for the public to comment, and for research by the city’s law director.
Council Clerk Caroline Cremer said if council votes on the ordinance at its next regularly scheduled meetings, the second reading would be July 27, and third on Aug. 10. The ordinance, if approved, wouldn’t take effect until 30 days after it is signed by the city’s mayor.
Police chief makes pitch
Wain said she recently was asked why the city didn’t have Flock cameras. At the time, she was contacting the vendor to find out about the options.
“They are a force multiplier for law enforcement investigations in a way that I don’t think this generation has seen before,” she said.
She said the city would start with six cameras. Data would be stored in the cloud, which is approved by the National Crime Information Center, or NCIC. The data would be owned by the city and it would decide who would have access.
“A lot of criminal cases are not just local,” she said. “They stem further out.”
She said there are “hundreds” of success stories in surrounding cities that have cameras, such as Ravenna and Twinsburg.
Flock cameras appear to have helped police capture Julius Edwards, the man suspected of stabbing a woman July 7 in Canton before heading to Summit County. The incident included a police chase through Fox Den Golf Course in Stow. The chase finally ended when the driver hit a Summit County Metro Parks cruiser, flipping the cruiser onto its roof in Stow. Edwards was apprehended after a foot chase.
“I think our residents deserve the best opportunities to get their crimes solved,” Wain told Streetsboro City Council on July 13.
How have flock cameras been used in Ravenna?
Ron Fields, administrative assistant for the Ravenna Police Department, sent the Record-Courier a 579-page document detailing how Flock data has been used by police to investigate everything from complaints about a suspicious person to fatal drug overdoses. Details were redacted on many of the reports.
The reports included times Ravenna’s cameras were used to help other police departments, and times outside cameras were used in a Ravenna investigation.
The reports dated to 2024 and included details of stabbings, shootings, auto thefts, missing people, assault, domestic violence, fires, hit-skip crashes, property damage, pursuits, rape, suspicious activity or vehicles, theft, warrants and welfare checks.
Council members said Flock cameras help
Those serving on Streetsboro City Council, including those in the criminal justice field, hailed the use of the cameras.
Wagner, a dispatcher at the Twinsburg Police Department, said the cameras have helped the city solve crimes, and data also has been shared with Streetsboro.
She said if she’s looking for something, all her personal information is on the screen, “so if I’m doing something wrong, I’m getting in trouble.” She would need a reason, such as a case number, to search for the data that is needed.
“It helps the officers too,” she said, adding that warrant information and other data is put into Flock.
“I’m 110% for them because we’ve been able to get justice for so many people,” she said.
Michniak, who works with the Portage County Prosecutor’s Office, said he recently handled the case of a shooting at a Ravenna home. The shooter, William Maurice Hale-Jones, recently was sentenced to 11 to 12½ years in prison for the Aug. 12, 2024, event.
“If it wasn’t for Flock cameras, we still wouldn’t know who did it,” Michniak said. “Public safety wise, this isn’t a leap I thought I’d see in my lifetime.”
The license plate data, he said, “is nothing we couldn’t do if we stationed an officer at an intersection with binoculars. It just saves us the time.” He said he’s not aware of the data being used to track individual people, and he would never support its use to generate revenue through traffic tickets.
“We are the ‘Gateway to Progress,’ but we’re also the gateway to every drug addict in the county, pretty much,” he said.
Privacy concerns cited
But Ring suggested a policy preventing the cameras from being used for tickets, and policies limiting how long data can be stored.
“Steve says these track us everywhere,” he said. “Yeah, they do. The government can’t get that information without a warrant … This creates a real time database that’s shared, and that can piece together your whole day.”
Law Director Joseph Grandinetti said he would research whether the data could be sought through a public records requests. If the cameras were to be used for traffic tickets, he said the city would need to approve separate legislation authorizing that.
Mayor Glenn Broska said he read about a police officer who used Flock data for his own purposes, and was convicted on felony charges.
“On any given day, you show up on 78 different cameras,” he said, citing ATMs and those at stores. “You have no expectation of privacy when you drive down the road.”
Ring, however, said those cameras are private and normally couldn’t be accessed without a warrant.
“I don’t think the government should be able to surveil you,” he said. “When you create a network of searchable databases that allow you to piece together my movements and create a timeline of where I’ve gone and what I do, where I worship, what doctor I go to, you’re able to do that, that becomes surveillance.”
Wagner said cities around Streetsboro have the cameras, forcing the city to rely on data from other departments to solve crimes.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Streetsboro police chief prompts talk about adding Flock cameras
Reporting by Diane Smith, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Diane Smith, Ravenna Record-Courier | USA TODAY Network
