Kent says no (for now) to license plate cameras, citing political climate (2025)

Kent City Council on April 16 delayed the purchase of automated license plate readers, opting instead to reconsider the matter in October. The national and local political climate, as well as how the cameras would be used, were top of mind.

Kent Police Chief Nicholas Shearer earlier this month told council 14 cameras strategically positioned at all exits from Kent and in places downtown would allow police to track vehicles associated with missing persons and with suspected criminal activity.

Shearer, alongside representatives from Flock Safety, presented council on April 2 with a three-year, $126,000 contract, and urged city leaders to quick-step the measure in order to save a $650-per-camera implementation fee.

Voting in favor of continuing discussions about installing the cameras were council members Gwen Rosenberg, Jack Amrhein, Jeff Clapper, Heidi Shaffer Bish, Chris Hook and Melissa Celko. Opposing them were Roger Sidoti, Mike DeLeone and Robin Turner.

Flock Safety maintains the data its cameras collect in a national database accessible to anyone Shearer would specifically identify.

Hook objected on April 16, expressing concerns about the erosion of checks and balances and accountability measures.

“This feels like something we should do, but maybe not the right time, given everything that’s going on,” he said.

Shaffer Bish said waiting until October allows city leaders to see what may transpire nationally, in Ohio and locally.

“This is not normal times, people,” she said. “It’s very difficult to trust that our interest as a community won’t be abused. I don’t know how long we can hold out if we are asked to present information.”

Shaffer Bish said people share her sense of “high anxiety” and stated that “creating another layer of surveillance at this time just might not be the best time.”

Amrhein said he had overheard an international student telling her friend she was afraid because visas of a Kent State University student and three post-graduate students were revoked for unclear reasons. People with revoked visas can legally stay in the country, but cannot return once they have left.

(On April 17, the university updated the number of students whose visas have been revoked to 10: three current students and seven recent graduates with Optional Practical Training post-graduate work permits.)

“I wanted to say don’t be afraid, everything will be all right, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know that for sure,” Amrhein said. “It becomes concerning to me that when we have a court ruling that is ignored in terms of the Supreme Court, what happens when the protections under the Flock cameras are ignored, and it hurts international students, residents?”

Though he supported Hook’s call to postpone a vote on the cameras, Sidoti said doing so wouldn’t change a thing. Council’s job is to create a safer community, and since Stow, Brimfield and Ravenna already have Flock cameras, “the moment we leave Kent, we’re already being recorded,” he said.

Losing that tracking ability the moment a vehicle enters Kent defies common sense, he said. Sidoti acknowledged that he can’t stop the sheriff from exercising his legal authority, but said he abhors what he understands ICE is able to do.

“I think we’re faced with what we’re faced with, and we’ve got to stand together,” Sidoti said. “The way we stand together is that we speak out about the atrocities that we feel are happening and, at the same time, understand we got to do everything we can to protect us.”

Turner said council’s real choice is to delay its vote for three-and-half years or trust in Shearer’s integrity.

“The ideological argument is the U.S. Constitution,” he said. “We’re in lawless times, and unfortunately the lawless people are the ones who are running the government. It’s scary, and it’s reprehensible.”

Turner suggested that council’s usual practice of considering proposed legislation through three readings — meaning three months, since council meets once a month — would be sufficient to more fully understand the community’s concerns and get a better read on the cameras.

“Could we be using technology which could be used against people in this community, especially being a university town, with a chief law enforcement officer who is wedded to a MAGA movement?” Turner asked. “This is a despotic era that we’re in, but I trust our chief of police. I trust at the end of the day the judgement that he could bring forth.”

Council must simultaneously safeguard the interests of Kent’s residents while considering their concerns and working with the university to protect students who are here for a better life, he told his colleagues.

“I believe in us as a community fighting back and trying to deal with the issues that could be brought from on high and affecting the residents here,” he said. “This government: it’s transactional. It’s going to do what it wants to do, being punitive, being grievance oriented. It scares the hell out of me.”

Council must not make a “rash” decision when people need more information, Rosenberg said.

“When you’re weighing privacy versus safety, this is really valid,” she said. “It’s something as a nation we struggle with. It’s not an easy answer, but once that data is collected, maybe it could present problems, or maybe not.”