I-Team: Security video shows Cleveland Water plant breach as guard slept, city says

CLEVELAND (WJW) — Video released to the FOX 8 I-Team shows what happened at a Cleveland Water plant as, according to the city, a guard was asleep.

Last month, we revealed a guard kept her job even after sleeping through a security breach. Cameras captured the crash, the call for help, and that help apparently waking up security.

Video shows a car barreling through a fence at the Nottingham Water Treatment Plant.

The car plowed into an area off-limits to the public.

Yet, the city found the security guard was asleep and never noticed what had happened.

It took place last winter, but the video has just been released to the I-Team from a records request.

It shows a big gap in protecting a water plant that’s part of a water system serving Northeast Ohio.

Earlier, we spoke to the driver involved.

“I just fell asleep and went straight through the fence,” he said.

Now, we also see on video his car driving around the water plant property.

You also see the driver walking around and calling for a tow truck. Then, you see the tow truck driver pull up to a gate and get out. The city said the tow truck driver had to bang on a window to wake up the security guard.

At one point, you also see the tow truck driver snap a picture at the guard station.

The driver of the car involved also said, “Yeah, but nobody ever came. Nobody ever came. I’m gonna say it again. Nobody ever came.”

In the meantime, the video also shows the tow truck hauling away the car that crashed. The city found the guard never wrote down anything about the car or the incident, and didn’t tell a boss, either.

Yet, the guard didn’t get fired. Instead, the guard was suspended for 10 days.

Still, the union has been fighting the discipline.

“I would say there wasn’t much of an investigation. She was never even interviewed to ask her what happened. She said she was not asleep. She wasn’t feeling well. Having some medical issues,” said attorney Dannielle Chaffin with the Ohio Patrolman’s Benevolent Association.

But what about security video capturing everything on camera?

The union argues someone in a dispatching center usually monitors a big bank of cameras from city water plants.

We also have questions for the Water Department, though no one there will talk to us on camera.

A Water Department statement claimed there was “no threat” to the water at any time.

However, the video shows as everything happened, the staff had no idea.

The union also argues the guard did tell a supervisor what had happened.

There’s no telling when that appeal on the punishment will be decided.

We will keep pressing the city to explain how a security breach that no one noticed can be considered “no threat.”

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