What the Mayor’s Call to Cancel Flock Actual Means
And What you can do about it
On August 19, 2026, Mayor posted on her socials a call for the termination of the Flock Contract. While this is a great set forward, this actually does nothing to reduce the amount of surveillance in our city.
If fact, we are looking to have far more than we did before. By February 2027, APD plans to reduce it’s Flock contract (of which there are only 11 cameras owned by the city here in Asheville) and have the Axon ALPR infrastructure operational (as stated in the timeline section of the APD’s memo.1 They are also exploring transistioning to a Flock camera deployment to a Flock software license to they they would STILL have access to the network.
And this comes on top of the RTIC. As you may know, On May 15, 2026, City Council voted 6-1 to accept funding from Chuck Edward’s office to build an RTIC system for the APD.2 The city has just recently published part of the contract, BUT this is not the whole contract. We do not know how many cameras, drones, and ALPRs the city has purchased. This is on top of the additional 20 fleet ALPRs the city is buying in a separate contract.
What now?
Email your City Council at [email protected] (you can also email individual members, their emails are listed on the Asheville City Website. You can write your own email about how your feel or use this letter that lays our our concerns with what is being done
To have an even greater impact, show up at the Council meeting, August 25, 2026 and let your voice be heard! Public comment sign-up starts at 4:30, but comment regarding this topic won’t commence until later in the evening.
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