An internal review of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District's Flock license plate camera network found no problems with searches conducted after July 7, when outside agencies were cut off, but it did not closely inspect the much larger pool of queries made before that date, according to Signal Cleveland.
The audit, dated Sept. 30 and released the week before Oct. 26, was requested in April by school board Chair Sara Elaqad. Signal Cleveland reported that it asked for the document in June and again after the board's Oct. 13 meeting, and that a district spokesperson initially described it as unavailable and still in draft form. The review concluded CMSD had policies and procedures for secure use of the system, and auditors concentrated on activity after access was restricted.
More than 500 outside law enforcement agencies had searched district data before July 7. Some obtained access through the system's default settings, while the audit identified 341 that a named CMSD administrator approved. Together those agencies ran more than 130,000 searches, over 70,000 of them from outside Ohio.
The findings arrive as the board weighs renewing a $603,000 annual agreement covering 201 cameras at 62 schools; a vote was scheduled for Oct. 27. Cleveland police accounted for nearly all searches after the restrictions — 8,984 in July, against 44 by district safety and security staff — measured against a $50,250 monthly cost.
The audit does not establish how many police searches involved crimes on school property, or how many produced investigative leads or arrests, per Signal Cleveland. The outlet also reported that CMSD denied its request for search logs. Elaqad said the review yielded stronger safeguards and described weighing privacy concerns against protecting school grounds, pointing to a run of vehicle break-ins that affected teachers. Teacher Bekah Lejarde, in public comment, questioned the subscription's cost relative to the city's per-camera rate.