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Council approves state grants for police tech and camera upgrades after public questions on oversight
Summary
Council unanimously accepted a GIVE grant that includes funds for CLEAR and also approved a $125,000 Dormitory Authority grant for downtown camera upgrades (Eclipse). Police described CLEAR use (five users, used for fraud and fugitive work) and said camera data are stored locally and are not AI/facial-recognition based; residents asked for guardrails and transparency.
The City Council voted to accept two state grant awards after public questions about oversight and privacy. Council adopted Resolution 77 (the GIVE grant) and Resolution 78 (a DASNY grant for camera upgrades) following staff explanations and public comment.
Police representatives described CLEAR as a law-enforcement information-aggregation tool (Consolidated Lead Evaluation and Reporting) now in its second year of agency use and accessible to five authorized users for investigative purposes including fraud cases, fugitive apprehension and nonfatal-shooting investigations. Staff said CLEAR aggregates third-party data, that TPD does not input its own data into CLEAR, and that usage is administratively controlled. During the camera discussion staff clarified the upgrade will use the Eclipse system (Axis cameras) and that the city stores footage locally, not in cloud storage, and that the upgrade is standard CCTV without facial-recognition or AI analytics. Residents at the public forum urged the council to postpone approval until local use policies and oversight mechanisms are in place for new surveillance technologies.
"CLEAR stands for Consolidated Lead Evaluation and Reporting," a police representative explained, describing it as an aggregation product similar to LexisNexis that the department has used primarily for investigative work. On the cameras, a staff member said the vendor is Eclipse and the manufacturer's cameras are Axis; staff confirmed the system is local-storage CCTV without AI-driven identification tools.
