Columbus City Council will hold two public hearings in the next month on data centers and Flock Safety cameras, two topics where community members have called on governments to curtail the use and development of the technologies.
The council plans to hold a public hearing announcing the results of a city audit into the use of Flock automatic license plate readers on Aug. 10 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. Next week, on July 22 at 5:30 p.m., the city will hold a hearing on proposed policies dealing with data centers and lead service lines.
Both hearings were announced on the city's social media accounts in the past week.
Council member Emmanuel Remy, who chairs the council's public safety and criminal justice committee, will host the hearing on Flock cameras. This comes after news that Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther stopped the Columbus Division of Police from sharing data for Flock cameras with other agencies from around Ohio.
Results from the audit showed CPD's data was searched for possible immigration-related reasons more than 15,000 times. Ginther issued an executive order years ago prohibiting CPD from enforcing federal immigration law.
The city said it invited representatives from Flock to testify.
Council member Christopher Wyche is holding a public hearing on July 22 at 4 p.m. at City Hall about policies on data centers and lead service lines. Wyche chairs the council's public utilities and sustainability committee.
Data centers have been at the center of frustrations in Columbus and around the country with rising utility rates and water usage. Some communities and even states like New York have proposed temporary moratoriums on new hyperscale data centers, which are being built to power artificial intelligence technologies.
Many of the data centers in the Columbus region are outside of the city's borders in Hilliard and New Albany, but many still tap into Columbus' water system.
Residents can provide written or in-person public testimony to either hearing by emailing the city council member's offices.
Those wishing to testify at the hearing on data centers should email clgolterman@columbus.gov by noon on July 21.
Those wishing to provide testimony at the hearing on Flock cameras should email pdmejia@columbus.gov by noon on Aug. 10.
