05/21/2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Safety Without Surveillance: The 10-Point Accountability Platform
Black Lives Matter Cleveland is proud to introduce the 10-Point Proposal: Community Safety & Police Surveillance Accountability Platform — a bold community safety framework demanding transparency, oversight, and public accountability for police surveillance technology in Cleveland.
This platform responds to growing concerns about technologies such as ShotSpotter, Flock cameras, license plate readers, surveillance cameras, and other data-driven policing tools being used without sufficient public debate, independent review, or community consent.
The proposal offers a clear path forward: require public hearings, mandate civil rights impact assessments, disclose surveillance contracts and data-sharing agreements, create meaningful community oversight, and ensure that Cleveland residents have a voice before these technologies are funded, renewed, or deployed.
Our communities deserve safety without surveillance, protection without profiling, and technology policies rooted in transparency—not secrecy.
10-Point Proposal: Community Safety & Police Surveillance Accountability Platform
This proposal establishes a clear standard: No surveillance without proof. No technology without public consent. No data collection without civil rights protections. No public safety budget that funds watching communities while underfunding the resources that keep communities safe.
Require Public Approval Before Any Surveillance Tool Is Purchased, Renewed, or Expanded
No police surveillance technology should be acquired, renewed, expanded, or integrated into city systems without public notice, public hearings, written impact reports, City Council approval, and community input from impacted neighborhoods.
Create a Full Public Inventory of All Police Surveillance Technology
The city must publish a plain-language inventory of every surveillance tool currently used, including the name, vendor, cost, purpose, data collected, data sharing with outside agencies, and the current policy governing use.
Establish a “Proof Before Purchase” Standard
Before approval, the city must show independent evidence that the tool reduces harm, clear public safety goals, a cost-benefit analysis, a civil rights risk assessment, alternatives considered, and a plan for public reporting.
Require Independent Civil Rights and Racial Impact Reviews
Every surveillance tool should undergo an independent review before approval and annually after deployment to examine whether the technology disproportionately targets Black neighborhoods, increases police contact in over-policed areas, or tracks protest activity.
Prohibit Surveillance Use Against Protest, Organizing, and First Amendment Activity
The city should ban the use of surveillance technology to monitor lawful protest, political activity, mutual aid, community organizing, religious gatherings, or First Amendment-protected activity.
Limit Data Collection, Retention, Access, and Sharing
The city must establish strict rules for what data can be collected, how long it can be stored, who can access it, and whether it can be shared with state, federal, private, or out-of-state agencies.
Add Sunset Clauses to Every Surveillance Contract
Every contract should expire unless City Council reauthorizes it after a public hearing, independent evaluation, community testimony, budget review, civil rights audit, and a public safety outcome report.
Create a CPC Policy for Community Surveillance Oversight
As the city’s independent civilian oversight body, the CPC should assert its authority to ensure that surveillance tools used by the Cleveland Division of Police align with constitutional protections, civil rights, public transparency, and community safety.
Redirect Public Safety Dollars Toward Prevention and Community-Based Safety
For every dollar proposed for surveillance, the city should be required to identify equal or greater investment in prevention-based safety, prioritizing violence interruption, youth employment, mental health crisis response, and housing stability.
Adopt a Community Safety First Budget Test
Every surveillance proposal should be required to pass a public budget test that answers questions about its effectiveness, civil rights risks, community alternatives considered, and what prevention investments could be funded with the same money.
What community problem is this technology supposed to solve?
What proof shows it will solve that problem?
What are the civil rights risks?
What community alternatives were considered?
What prevention investments could be funded with the same money?
Who benefits financially from the contract?
Who carries the risk if the tool is misused?
How will the public know whether it worked?
How can residents challenge or stop the program?
What happens if the tool fails to deliver results?
Cleveland should not define safety by how much technology it buys. It should define safety by whether fewer people are harmed, fewer families are traumatized, and more communities have what they need to thrive.
BLACK LIVES MATTER CLEVELAND
