CLEVELAND — Safe Smart CLE, the City of Cleveland’s $35 million endeavor to install thousands of LED street lights and security cameras, has been billed by city leaders as an initiative that will make the city brighter and better at solving crime. However, at Wednesday’s meeting of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, several city council members expressed frustration at how the program’s roll-out has fared. Especially critical was Council President Kevin Kelley who chided public utilities officials over department staff apparently dismissing concerns and complaints filed by citizens.
Crews began installing LED street lights as part of Smart Safe CLE earlier this year in Council Wards 1 and 13. Using LED technology, the street lights will be significantly brighter than their incandescent counterparts while also being far more energy efficient. The smart LED lights will also have technology on-board that will allow city officials to raise or lower the illumination depending on what is needed, Mayor Frank Jackson said.
However, when citizens began submitting complaints about overly bright street lights into his office, Council President Kelley said public utilities staff members appeared dismissive of those complaints. The responses that Kelley’s office staff received seemed to suggest the brightness and direction of the streetlights were something that citizens would have to get accustomed to, Councilman Kelley said.
“Citizens should be able to sit on their front porch. It’s unfortunate that I am having to address this [at the public safety committee] but I don’t do this until I’ve taken the proper steps beforehand,” Councilman Kelley said. “In addition to my office contacting and getting these types of responses, I’ve got emails on [July 31] and [August 2] asking who the point person on this? I still don’t know who the point person is on this project.”
Councilman Kelley said citizens have filed numerous complaints about the streetlights shining brightly into their homes, porches, driveways and yards. Additionally, some of the streetlights aren’t illuminating areas that should be illuminated, including public streets and sidewalks, Councilman Kelley said.
“I need somebody to come out to Ward 13 at night and I want you to stand in the areas where these lights are supposedly not shining light,” Councilman Kelley said. “I want you to look directly at the light and say that this is okay and this is what we want. This is something we all supported. In the rollout, it’s getting citizens really angry, rightfully so, and you’re not responding to them. Basically, it’s telling residents that their concerns are something they are going to have to get used to and being dismissive of the people that make up the city of Cleveland.”
Further frustrating Kelley is the apparent lack of communication from top leaders at the city’s public works division. Kelley then demanded that no new LED streetlights be installed and the current LED lights be dimmed until the issues are rectified.
“I am not any more important than any resident but I am a member of Council. When I email somebody saying I would like to know who the project manager is or who the point person is, I would like a response,” Councilman Kelley said. “What I need everybody at this table to understand is tonight we will have had a hearing about LED lights. But there are residents that can’t sit on their front porches.”
The city’s chief operating officer Darnell Brown apologized to members of council on behalf of the administration. Brown then vowed he would visit the overly-illuminated areas at nighttime and address citizens’ concerns.
“I will apologize on behalf of the administration for the response that you got,” Brown said. “We hear you. It’s a concern that we all share. We’ll get to the bottom of it.”
The one thousand security cameras, the second component of the Safe Smart CLE initiative, also drew the ire of some on the public safety committee. Specifically, members of council appeared frustrated by the ambiguity of where some of the cameras will be installed.
Initially, the city will install the security cameras at recreation centers and parks, which will eventually serve as a ‘hub’ for the new crime-fighting technology, Chief Calvin Williams said. The combination of the new LED lights and high-tech cameras will allow the police department to potentially have forensic-level photographs of license plates and crime suspects. In addition to being installed around recreation centers and parks, the cameras will be placed in public rights of way. Those cameras will be installed in locations that will be determined by using crime heat maps and crime statistics.
Police command staff had council members submit lists to district commanders of locations that council members desired to have cameras installed. However, locations that provide more strategic benefit will be given priority, officials said. At this point, neither the public nor council members have been apprised of where those public rights of way cameras will be installed. City officials said the locations of those cameras may never be publicly divulged in an effort to prevent criminals from knowing what areas of the city to avoid.
“I submitted 58 locations and I never heard a word back from anyone. What I want to know and what I want to see is this: what are the locations in Ward 8? I don’t want someone to tell me it’s about national security. I don’t want to even hear that,” Councilman Mike Polensek said. “Those cameras aren’t guarding the White House. They aren’t guarding Trump Tower. I want to know where the cameras are being proposed in Ward 8. I bet anyone around this table wants to see the same dog gone thing.”
As expected, members of the public safety committee also asked Chief Williams for lists of potential camera locations in their respective wards. Chief Williams also urged the council to temper their expectations because a camera will initially not be installed in every problem area in the city. There are multiple phases to the Safe Smart CLE initiative that included the installation of additional cameras. However, those phases have not been funded yet.
“Input from council, the different committees that are within council and in the different wards… that has not fallen on deaf ears. We’ll definitely incorporate that as we go through this process,” Chief Williams said. “We can put 1,000 cameras from one end of St. Clair to the other and not cover every spot that needs to be covered. We need to have the proper expectations. If we set the backbone and the infrastructure up properly we will be able to cover most of what needs to be covered in this city over the next four, five or six years.”
The cameras and street lights should be completely installed within the next 18 months, city officials said.
