City Council approved a three-year, $2.7 million contract for surveillance cameras and lighting installments across four parks throughout the city.
Detroit-based Bayview Electric Company LLC will bring “consistent lighting and security” to the most used spaces as walkways in Chandler Park, Eliza-Howell Park, Maheras-Gentry Park and Rouge Park.
According to council members, this is part of an answer to community public safety concerns in these areas. Per the General Services Department’s responses to a memo from District 7 Council Member Denzel McCampbell, the four parks have seen over 700 “security-related interactions,” since 2024.
Still, two Council members — McCampbell and District 6 Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero — noted the privacy and surveillance concerns of their constituents at Tuesday’s meeting. McCampbell said he was particularly concerned about residents’ constitutional rights and whether data would be stored on a private, third-party server.
“We’re going to continue the conversation on how do we make sure that folks feel safe in our public places and parks, and also make sure that we are not moving towards an increased surveillance state,” he said in an interview with BridgeDetroit.
McCampbell said responses to an internal memo he sent GSD relieved him of enough concerns to reluctantly support the project on behalf of residents who wanted more security in the parks. GSD agreed, per a motion, to post answers to McCampbell’s memo on its public website, as well as any finalized contracts and further amendments. City Council also voted to require GSD to send quarterly reports on incident data, park contacts and complaints from the four parks to City Council.
Santiago-Romero ultimately became the sole “no” vote on the project. She said, given the council’s previous experience approving Flock cameras for freeways only to now see them elsewhere in the city, she wanted to be clear that she still had concerns and questions about increased surveillance in Detroit.
“It was a hard vote because I know it’s something that we’re being asked by community to support,” she told BridgeDetroit.
HOW WILL THE TECH BE USED?
According to the Community Input Over Government Surveillance (CIOGS) Specification Report presented to council, the cameras will collect data on locations, vehicles and/or individuals at the parks. Per GSD’s answer to McCampbell’s memo, though a third-party vendor will install the cameras, all data will be stored and monitored by the city’s Video Management System, which is secured by the Department of Innovation and Technology.
GSD will also adhere to its existing Data Retention Policy, which includes only keeping video up to 30 days unless it contains criminal evidence. According to answers to McCampbell’s memo, cameras will be connected to the Detroit Police Department’s ’s Real Time Crime Center in order to link “park operations and emergency response infrastructure.”
In addition to being prohibited for use to target individuals for personal reasons — a concern found commonly with the use of Flock cameras — the cameras and surveillance data also won’t be used in traffic or immigration enforcement. McCampbell pointed out in his memo that the CIOGS report did not include First Amendment amendment activities under its prohibited use sanction. According to GSD’s response, technology governance is strictly “content-neutral” in order to protect and avoid infringing on visitor’s constitutional rights.
“GSD Security fully affirms that public parks belong to the community for expression, assembly and recreation,” GSD’s response read.
Requests to access surveillance data will be reviewed and approved by the city’s Law Department. GSD will include park cameras in annual reports on surveillance technology and use.
