Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration’s unorthodox renewal via the Board of Control of the city’s contract with ShotSpotter, the controversial gunfire detection service, was completely legal, members of its Public Safety Department told City Council on Wednesday.
In early April, Public Safety Director Wayne Drummond sought and received a thumbs up from the Mayor’s Board of Control to reup what is about a $900,000 contract with Sound Thinking, the purveyors of the technology.
The Board of Control is public, Drummond argued, and made up of more than a dozen directors at City Hall; the renewal was not sneaky or meant to be hush-hush.
And definitely not a snub to Council.
“I take the onus and the responsibility for not talking to you,” Drummond told City Council’s Safety Committee on Tuesday.
“I take that on me,” he said. “I should have come to you and the Council President. That will not happen again.”
Drummond’s apology was backed up by his claim that Public Safety was legally allowed to renew, for the third time, Cleveland’s contract under a section in city code—Section 181.102. — that permits the city to renew a software license without having to seek Council’s approval.
Cleveland police have solved just about 80 percent of their homicide cases this year, Drummond said, asserting that ShotSpotter played a pivotal role in gathering evidence and arresting suspects.
But, regardless of law or procedure, Council wasn’t happy. Especially considering ShotSpotter’s criticism in the past few years — concerns about surveillance, its efficacy and usefuless, and whether its data is permissable in court.
Many on Tuesday felt that Drummond and Assistant Safety Director Jason Shachner might have been a little more frank when it came to renewal.
“There is a lack of trust when you don’t have a strong partnership,” Ward 7 Councilwoman Stephanie Howse-Jones said. “You, Director, were not being a straight shooter when it came to this contract because people knew how unsettled many City Council members are.”
Others cited Tuesday’s hearing as a chance to potentially amend the part of city law that allowed ShotSpotter’s renewal to slip by. Ward 1 Councilman Joe Jones noted that law hadn’t been looked at since 2018.
“I think we need to bring that piece back and modify it,” he said.
In response, Drummond and Shachner argued that what some councilmembers alleged was a backdoor renewal was needed as a “stopgap” to ensure that CPD could keep its gunfire detection service without a lapse in access.
It’s money well spent, both said. Gunfire detection, orchesterated by a triangulation of acoustic sensors, cut down police patrol response time to an average of 71 seconds per incident, Shachner reported. That is despite a report last year from Cleveland State that found ShotSpotter actually overworked the understaffed CPD.
Yet, for Drummond, mere 911 calls would never suffice.
“It could be a shot from around the corner. It could be several blocks away,” Drummond said. “With this technology, it gives our office a very finite area to look for potential evidence or victims.”
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