Romulus City Council voted to temporarily ban data centers, discuss Flock cameras

ROMULUS, Mich. (FOX 2) - The City of Romulus is getting ahead of the data center debate before it even begins, as they are temporarily banned before they even open. 

Data Centers and Flock, oh my!

Big picture view:

Data Centers and Flock cameras were the hot topic of discussion at Romulus City Hall on Monday. Residents joined the meeting expressing a number of environmental concerns and that they do not need one in their neighborhood.

Meanwhile, the city council stressed that nothing has been proposed. A six-month moratorium would prevent them from even looking at proposals or applications, so the city council voted unanimously for the moratorium.

Besides Data Centers, Flock cameras became another topic of discussion.

The city has twenty up and running with thirty more scheduled to go up. Residents at the meeting questioned how they are being funded. 

Residents asked: Is it paid for by the city's Tax Increment Finance Authority, also known as ‘TIFA Board?’ 

Or was it the police department?

Some say the original contract with Flock was for $47,500 but allege a short time later it was $90,000.

What they're saying:

When FOX 2 asked Mayor Robert McCraight about this discrepancy in October, he said it was a "typo by a clerical person."

"It’s just a way to clean it up. We want to make sure everybody’s on board and on the same page," he said. "The TIFA Board knew what they were voting on to support and help alleviate some of that drain or general fun which is public safety dollars. But Romulus is a different community. We housed DTW. We talked about it before with 30-million travelers. That’s more than Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. 

"So when you talk about 60–70 percent of the violent crime in Romulus is committed by people who don’t live here, we need to use tools to push that number down and our accredited police department is doing such. But we’re always going to look at one's venues. Is that the best technology that we have right now? It seems like. Can we get better? Absolutely."

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