Cleveland's Robo-Guards: Safer Streets or a Surveillance State?

CLEVELAND, OH – December 29, 2025 – Downtown Cleveland is undergoing a profound transformation, not just in its skyline, but in how its streets are kept safe. City officials are celebrating a significant downturn in serious crime and a surge in pedestrian activity, crediting the expansion of a high-tech security initiative. At the heart of this program are more than thirty AI-driven security devices, including the imposing RIO 360 security towers and stationary ROSA units, developed by Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions (AITX) through its subsidiary, Robotic Assistance Devices (RAD).

What began as a pilot in Public Square has now expanded to encompass Playhouse Square and the North Coast Harbor, creating a wide net of digital sentinels. These devices, integrated into the city’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC), are touted as a cornerstone of a modern public safety strategy. As Cleveland positions itself as a blueprint for other American cities, a complex picture emerges—one that balances claims of unprecedented success against pressing questions of privacy, effectiveness, and the true cost of automated surveillance.

A Blueprint for Urban Safety?

By the numbers, Cleveland's story is compelling. City leaders point to data from the "Raising Investment in Safety for Everyone (RISE)" initiative, which shows dramatic year-over-year crime reductions. In a comparison of 500-day periods, homicides reportedly fell by nearly 36%, motor vehicle thefts by 22%, and felonious assaults by 9%. Projections for 2024 suggest the city is on track for its lowest homicide count in five years.

This drop in crime has coincided with a visible revitalization of the urban core. According to the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, visitor foot traffic in 2023 surpassed 90% of pre-pandemic levels and was expected to fully recover in 2024, with over 57 million visits recorded. Leaders directly link this renewed public confidence to the enhanced perception of safety.

"The value is not just in detecting an incident, but in resolving thousands of routine issues before they require human intervention," Troy McCanna, RAD's Chief Security Officer, has stated publicly, emphasizing the technology's role in improving both outcomes and public trust. The AI-powered units can broadcast messages, detect loitering, and provide a constant, visible deterrent that supporters say is more reliable and ever-present than traditional patrols. For city officials and downtown business leaders, the RAD technology is a critical component of a multi-pronged strategy to create a safer, more inviting metropolitan hub.

The Economics of AI Policing

Beyond the civic benefits, the Cleveland deployment is a major showcase for AITX's disruptive business model. The company markets its products under an "AI-driven Solutions-as-a-Service" framework, positioning its robots as a powerful cost-saving alternative to human security personnel. AITX claims its solutions can reduce security costs for clients by 35% to 80% compared to the nearly $50 billion manned-guarding industry.

This pitch is central to the company's strategy of redefining the security landscape for enterprise, government, and critical infrastructure clients. By developing its technology in-house and securing a SOC 2 Type 2 audit for its data protection and internal controls, AITX aims to build credibility and present a scalable, financially attractive package to cash-strapped municipalities and corporations. The company is actively leveraging the media attention from Cleveland to engage with other cities, hoping to replicate this model nationwide.

However, this ambitious vision is set against a backdrop of financial vulnerability. Recent analyses from market-watchers like TipRanks' AI tool have assigned AITX a "Neutral" rating, citing significant financial weaknesses, including negative equity, ongoing losses, and negative cash flow. With its stock carrying a "Hold" rating and a low price target, the company's long-term viability appears heavily dependent on its ability to convert high-profile deployments like Cleveland's into a sustainable and profitable stream of contracts. The success of its technology in the public square is directly tied to its survival in the stock market.

A City Under Watchful Eyes

While officials celebrate the crime statistics, civil liberties advocates and independent watchdogs are raising red flags. The core of their concern lies in the vast expansion of surveillance and the lack of transparent oversight. The SAFE SMART CLE program, which integrates privately owned cameras with the city’s network, has seen its camera count swell by 1,700%, creating a network of over 3,000 integrated cameras accessible by the RTCC.

Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have long cautioned against the adoption of such technologies without robust, independent studies to verify their effectiveness in actually solving or reducing crime. Critics point out that crime is a complex socio-economic issue, and attributing a decline solely to technology oversimplifies the reality. Indeed, when questioned on the matter, the city has acknowledged that "there is no data being collected" to specifically measure the direct impact of the SAFE SMART CLE program itself.

This lack of specific data is compounded by a perceived gap in public accountability. The Cleveland Community Police Commission, the city's final authority on policing policy, has reportedly not been presented with a formal policy for the SAFE SMART CLE program. This raises critical questions about how the collected data is used, how long it is stored, who has access to it, and what protections are in place to prevent misuse or algorithmic bias, which could disproportionately target certain communities.

Cracks in the Chrome Finish

Further scrutiny reveals that the narrative of unblemished success has its own blind spots. While overall violent crime has decreased, city data from the 2024 summer safety plan also showed troubling increases in other categories, including a 4% rise in rape, a 2% rise in burglary, and a 14% rise in arson. This selective success suggests the AI deterrent may be shifting crime rather than eliminating it entirely.

Furthermore, the technological backbone of the initiative has shown operational vulnerabilities. Investigations have revealed that Cleveland's Real Time Crime Center, the human hub processing the data from the AI sentinels, is not staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, creating potential gaps in its vaunted real-time response capabilities.

A final, tragic irony complicates the story of downtown's revival. Despite the surge in pedestrian foot traffic—a key metric of success for the safety program—the number of pedestrians and cyclists involved in crashes has remained alarmingly high. According to a July 2025 report, 603 pedestrians and cyclists were involved in crashes in 2024, and pedestrian fatalities actually increased. This stark reality underscores that while AI robots may deter certain crimes, creating a truly safe urban environment requires a far more holistic approach that technology alone cannot provide.