City OKs $85,000 Rocket Fund grant and CityDetect pilot to create automated monthly property surveys

Cleveland — The finance committee approved a one‑year pilot using CityDetect’s camera and computer‑vision software to create automated, geolocated property images and condition detection across the city, funded by an $85,000 Rocket Community Fund grant.

What the pilot does: CityDetect would mount two side‑facing cameras on a city vehicle to capture rapid‑frame images of the public right‑of‑way at road speeds. Images are geolocated and uploaded automatically to a cloud portal where computer‑vision models flag more than 100 property‑condition indicators (for example: tarps on roofs, boarded storefronts, piled tires or heavy dumping, and signs of structural disrepair).

City staff said the pilot is designed to be a tool to prioritize inspections and accelerate enforcement and remediation work; the technology is not intended to replace staff or to be used for automated ticketing. The city will tune the algorithms to local conditions during the one‑year pilot and will create a steering group to coordinate access and training. Director Elizabeth Crow (City Planning) said the program would allow a full city‑wide pass roughly once a month.

Privacy and limits: City officials emphasized automated blurring of faces and license plates; they said the city would not ingest identifying plate or facial data and that the data would initially be stored in the vendor’s cloud as part of the SaaS agreement, with city ingestion into the city’s Azure data warehouse and GIS platform for authorized staff access. The portal will provide staff logins and training; council members and trained staff will be provided access after orientation.

Civil‑liberties concerns were raised by some council members. The director said the data is fit‑for‑purpose, focused on built‑environment conditions rather than surveillance; the vendor’s system is poor at detecting moving objects and is tuned for static property features. The committee asked that the city maintain strict limits on public‑safety integration and on any use that could be construed as real‑time surveillance.

The committee approved ordinance 995‑2025 to accept the grant and proceed with the pilot. Staff said the most substantial work in the first months will be camera installation, API connections and tuning the AI to Cleveland’s conditions; they conservatively estimated portal availability to staff in early 2026.

Provenance: The transcript contains the department presentation, vendor demonstration references, council questions about privacy and access, and the committee vote to accept the grant.