The Cleveland City Council convened for a public session characterized by extensive public commentary on civil rights, surveillance technology, and wrongful convictions, alongside the unanimous approval of over twenty emergency ordinances and resolutions. Council members engaged in standard administrative procedures, including recognition of community leaders and condolences, while public speakers utilized the platform to urge the council on immediate policy reversals and ethical considerations regarding city spending and justice system integrity.
Madam Clerk, please call the road. Griffin here. Bishop. Bishop. Cromwell. Gray. Harrison. Harsh. House Jones. Jones. Casey. Kelly. Moore, Polensick, Santana, Slife, Spencer, Star, Welch. Well, everyone, please rise for a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Such disruptions may constitute a misdemeanor and a violation of Section Six O five dot oh four. Anyone who disrupts this lawful meeting is in violation of the codified ordinances, commits misdemeanors, and is subject to prosecution. The following is the first and only warning. If this meeting is disrupted, I will gabble a halt to the proceedings and direct the assembled officers to escort any person participating in the disruption out of the chamber. Once persons participating in a disruption are out of the chambers, the officers will close the doors and the disruptors will be handled as directed by the Director of Public Safety. Thank you. We will now move to public comment. Once again, I'm asking all of the council to turn around and acknowledge the speakers, and I'm asking all of the speakers to acknowledge your time. Many of you have uh spoken before, so you pretty much know the routine. Yellow means to wrap it up, red means to abruptly stop. Please come forward. The first person that we have is Terry Wong. She's from Ward 3. Terry is here to talk about flock and other flock ups by the city of Cleveland. She's not representing anyone and not being paid by anyone. Ms. Wong, you had the floor. Good evening. If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today, he wouldn't need to imagine a horror film about birds overwhelming a town. He could just film Cleveland. In August 2022, the first flock automatic license plate reader appeared, perched on a pole like a mechanical raven, silent and watching. And then just like in the birds, they multiplied. Within two months, nearly 100 had settled across the city, tracking our movements without a single public conversation. And here's the twist Hitchcock would have loved. I was serving on the community police commission at the time, and even I wasn't told. The oversight body created by voters through issue 24, the one meant to shape police policy and protect civil rights, found out only after these machines were everywhere. If the commission wasn't informed, the public was never meant to be. Then came the horror level defects. These aren't small bugs, they are structural flock-ups that create enormous legal liability for Cleveland. If a hacked camera triggers a wrongful arrest or leaks personal information, it's Clevelanders, not flock, who will pay the price. But instead of removing these invasive birds, the city seems eager to make a sequel. Cleveland has recently spent 150,000 on a shot spotter study, even though decades of research already questioned its value. And CSU researchers could barely reach conclusions because ShotSpotter and CPD couldn't provide full data sets.