Cleveland will use a $355,400 state grant to enhance the surveillance abilities of the city’s real-time crime center.
Police plan to use that money to buy 100 license plate reader cameras, five portable surveillance cameras and two drones, according to legislation passed earlier this year giving the city authority to seek the grant.
Mayor Justin Bibb, Gov. Mike DeWine, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley and other officials announced the funding at the city’s emergency operations center Monday afternoon.
After a news conference, DeWine and interim Chief of Police Wayne Drummond visited the city’s real-time crime center, a small room where workers reviewed surveillance footage and Shotspotter gunshot detection data.
“The most important thing this center can do is to get the violent offenders off the streets before they kill someone else,” DeWine said. “And this is a very excellent tool. It enhances what police can see. It enhances what police can do.”
Cleveland does not currently own video cameras that read license plates, according to the city’s grant application. The equipment would capture license plate images “24 hours a day/ seven days a week,” allowing police to identify cars near the scenes of violent crimes.
The mayor pitched the surveillance technology as a possible alternative to unpredictable police chases.
“One thing that I’m not going to endorse in the city of Cleveland is erratic chases across our city,” Bibb said. “Technologies, like the drone technology, allows us to be thoughtful and prudent to contain certain issues of violent crime when it comes to erratic traffic behavior all across our city.”
Ohio used $8 million in state funds to launch its violent crime reduction grant program, bolstering the effort with $58 million from the state’s federal American Rescue Plan Act allocation.
At the same time that Cleveland police are trying to bolster their ability to surveil city streets, they’re grappling with a staffing deficit. The police ranks are about 220 officers below budgeted strength, the mayor told reporters Monday.
Bibb has previously said that he plans to increase police pay so the city can better compete for cadet candidates. Cleveland is currently renegotiating its contract with the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association and other city labor unions.
“I know it’s a major structural issue that we’ve been dealing with for years,” Bibb said. “I’m not going to speak right now on where we are on negotiations with our police union, but know that fixing this problem is a core priority for me as mayor.”
