Flock No, the same group pushing Cleveland City Hall to ditch the automatic license plate reader system, sent a letter to several district leaders and every school board member, calling on CMSD to stop using the technology ahead of the 2026-27 school year.
The group points to instances in Dayton and Shaker Heights where Flock cameras were used for immigration-related searches, despite city policies prohibiting it. They also highlight the cost of Flock — more than $600,000 annually — at a time when Cleveland schools are laying off teachers and closing buildings.
Flock No argues the only way to protect children and their families is to remove the technology from school campuses.
“The top priority of CMSD should be the wellbeing of all students, immigrant and otherwise,” Flock No wrote. “ALPR readers in schools put immigrant students at particular risk.”
Lamont Dodson, the district’s chief of safety and security, said removing the cameras would hinder efforts to reduce vandalism and vehicle theft on school property.
Dodson told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that the schools’ cameras cannot be searched by law enforcement agencies outside of Cleveland police and that the cameras only see school property.
No immigration-related searches have been conducted on the network, Dodson said, and federal immigration officials have neither carried out deportations on school property nor requested information about students from the district.
Dodson said Cleveland schools would “not willingly or openly share anything with them.”
“That’s not going to be the action of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District — not as long as I’m here,” Dodson said.
Flock cameras are automatic license plate readers that capture images of passing vehicles, creating a searchable database that police can use to track where and when a vehicle was seen.
CMSD has used the cameras since 2023, when it received nearly $1.3 million through a state grant to install Flock devices and use the services for two years. The district now pays $600,000 yearly to operate and maintain 201 Flock cameras that are spread across dozens of schools.
Dodson said Flock cameras were first installed because employees’ vehicles were being taken from parking lots, and CMSD did not have sufficient information to provide to police.
But since then, he said the Flock cameras have been used to help police solve cases of car break-ins, vandalism, street takeovers in parking lots and sex offenders illegally visiting school property.
Dodson said these cameras are only pointed toward school property and do not capture data from surrounding streets.
Non-police Flock customers can elect to share their data with police. Dodson said only Cleveland police have permission to search the school’s license-plate reader data.
Dodson said he’s asked CEO Warren Morgan and the Board of Education to renew the Flock contract, which would otherwise expire in July. A vote is not yet scheduled.
Bryn Adams, a spokesperson for Flock No, said that documenting crime does not stop crime. While surveillance technology is giving Cleveland schools and police more information, Adams says it’s not deterring crimes.
Adams said residents are not convinced that the data captured by Cleveland Schools’ Flock cameras can’t be accessed by immigration officials, and they worry a Cleveland officer could share or misuse the data.
But even setting immigration aside, she said it’s “unbelievably wasteful” to spend money on Flock while CMSD consolidates schools and lays off staff.
“I would think that every available dollar would be spent on students’ education,” Adams said.
Flock No points out that cameras are installed even at buildings the district will soon close. Dodson said they will consider whether to keep those cameras, but he’d prefer to, saying it helps them keep an eye on vacant properties.
Flock has come under fire in Cleveland and throughout the country amid a growing resentment with surveillance technology used by police. Cleveland has 100 Flock cameras across the city, installed in 2023.
Mayor Justin Bibb has touted Flock’s ability to help investigate violent crimes, recover stolen vehicles, and find missing people. But amid growing pressure, he is putting the question of whether to keep Flock in Cleveland up to a vote by City Council.
The city’s contract, like the school district’s, expires this summer.
Cleveland police have long said the city’s Flock cameras can’t be used for immigration enforcement, and that searches were regularly audited. Public records however revealed more than 160 immigration-searches in 30 days. City officials said those searches were a “data fluke” caused by Flock incorrectly hooking up fire department drones to a national look-up tool. However, the “fluke” went unnoticed for months, despite city officials’ assurances that the system was being closely monitored.
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