Twice, groups of East Side pastors filed into Cleveland City Hall to defend Flock Safety license plate readers. It looked like the Black church rallying behind a mayor’s public safety agenda — moral authority in action. Then campaign finance records told a different story. Rev. Aaron Phillips, the man organizing those clergy appearances, had been collecting seven payments of $2,500 from Mayor Justin Bibb’s reelection campaign. Total: $17,500. The gap between what this looked like and what the paper trail reveals is where the real story lives.
The timing matters. Cleveland’s City Council Public Safety Committee voted against renewing Flock’s contract, which covers roughly 100 cameras that photograph and log every passing vehicle into a searchable police database — not just suspects’ vehicles, but everyone’s. The full council later approved a six-month extension, a compromise that landed right as the Supreme Court ruled against dragnet geofence warrants, putting ALPR systems like Flock squarely in constitutional crosshairs, according to Cleveland.com.
“They Know We Want Safety”
The financial ties between Phillips’ consulting firm and the Bibb campaign have sharpened questions about whether clergy support for Flock was organic faith-community consensus or coordinated political strategy.
Engagement Consulting Inc., Phillips’ firm, received those seven $2,500 payments from the Bibb campaign between April and November of the prior year, per campaign finance records reported by Rooster.info. The Bibb campaign says Phillips was paid for pastoral organizing and community outreach — not specifically to advocate for Flock. Phillips himself organized and led clergy groups to City Hall twice during the contract debate. Asked directly whether anyone compensated him to mobilize pro-Flock clergy, he declined to answer, texting: “I support LPR [license plate reader] cameras because I support safety in my community. That’s it, that’s all.” Flock Safety acknowledged meeting with clergy as part of its community engagement efforts but has not answered whether Phillips received any company compensation.
Not all Black pastors are reading from the same script:
- Rev. Napoleon Harris of Antioch Baptist says many clergy resent being portrayed as a unified front behind Flock.”They know that we want safety. But instead of safety, they’re giving us surveillance.”
- Rev. Vincent Stokes of New Sardis Primitive Baptist walks a tighter line — his congregation deals with car break-ins during Sunday services, but he questions whether the civil liberties tradeoff is worth it. Families looking for proven home security systems often find themselves weighing similar tradeoffs between safety and privacy.
Phillips and his allies framed opposition as a West Side problem — safer neighborhoods telling crime-hit communities to accept more risk. Bishop Chui, a Glenville resident and “Flock No” coalition member, calls that framing misleading. Many Black residents in high-crime neighborhoods also oppose Flock. Chui draws a sharp line between residents who “take off work in the middle of the day” to attend hearings and “people who do this professionally” — naming Phillips explicitly. His term for the council proceedings: a “dog and pony show.”
The real question isn’t whether Flock cameras solve crimes. It’s whether you can trust the voices vouching for them. When the pastor at the podium is also cashing campaign checks, “the faith community supports this” stops being a moral endorsement and starts looking like a line item.
