The city spent $853,000 in taxpayer money to renew a gunshot detection program, but council members say they were not included in the decision.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The city spent $853,000 in taxpayer money to renew a gunshot detection program, but council members say they were not included in the decision.
ShotSpotter will continue usage in Cleveland. The city has used the technology since 2020. It detects gunshots and alerts officers to where they may have come from. Council members say they were left out of the decision to renew the contract.
The city’s public safety department went through the Board of Control, a board appointed by Mayor Justin Bibb, which spent the money to renew ShotSpotter for another year. City code requires any contract over $50,000 to go before the council, but the public safety department said a section of city code lets the director bypass council for the ShotSpotter agreement. City Council indicated the desire for an RFP process regarding gunshot detection technology.
To avoid the disruption of safety services, the Department of Public Safety, led by Director Drummond, followed the process as established by City Ordinance. Council staff were notified by the Board of Control agenda in advance, and the public will have the same access to information surrounding the forthcoming RFP process as they do with all other RFP processes executed by the City. To clarify, Council is not required to be a part of the vendor selection or RFP process.
The City renewed this contract to account for their inclusion in the process. Public Safety Director Wayne Drummond said he made the call.
“I did not want to not have that technology in the 13 square miles in the City of Cleveland,” Drummond said. “Never once, in my meetings with him or at the safety committee, did he indicate they were going to extend the contract,” Polensek said. At the end of 2024, Polensek put the brakes on any contract renewal — pushing the department to open the process up to competing companies first.
Drummond said the decision to go through the Board of Control was partly because ShotSpotter was already in place. He acknowledged the spending deserves public input. Councilwoman Jones said the administration was not transparent about the contract.
“The administration, you too, director chief, were not being straight shooters when it came to this contract,” Jones said. Polensek said he is looking at closing the loophole in city code that made this possible to make sure a decision like this never bypasses council again.
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