Getting Flock Out

Asheville City Council voted 5 to 2 on Aug 25, 2026 to terminate the city’s contract with Flock Safety (the record of the meeting). The resolution directs the city manager to terminate, asks Flock to remove its 11 cameras, bars city employees from searching the city’s Flock data, and orders a review with ten study topics. As of Sept 23, 2026, three things the exit requires have not been recorded: the cameras verifiably down, APD’s Flock user accounts and network search access closed, and Flock’s written confirmation that the city’s data is deleted. The executed Axon contract, which governs what replaces Flock, was posted by the city in August 2026; the itemized quote it references was not (the contract, as signed). This page holds the eight demands that make a termination an exit, scores the adopted resolution against them, and lists what one person can still do.

Our concern is accountability and oversight, not cameras as such; the position is stated in full on the homepage.

What one camera keeps

Flock’s search network is an agency-account feature, not a camera feature. An agency with National Lookup enabled searches Flock’s national network, and its data-sharing relationships persist, regardless of how many cameras it owns:

Customs and Border Protection searched more than 80,000 Flock cameras while owning none and holding no contract, through sharing invitations and an undisclosed pilot (404 Media).
The ACLU of Massachusetts’ technical analysis, Oct 7, 2025: agencies enable national access “simply by selecting ‘Enable National Lookup’”; more than 450,000 national searches in a single 30-day period (ACLU-MA Data for Justice).
Austin removed every camera and kept searching, through requests to two neighboring towns’ systems, until journalists reported it in February 2026. Council member Mike Siegel: “a violation of the intent of council policy” (KUT).

Asheville’s officials described the same mechanism at the May 7, 2026 agenda briefing. Sage Turner, restating the one-camera plan to the interim chief (video, 41:49): “really keeping one just means that we have some kind of access to the interface so that we can use those that are out there that aren’t even our cameras.” Interim Chief Stepp: “Yeah, that’s kind of right. That exactly right.” Stepp’s rationale (38:48): retaining access is “imperative” because “there’s so many agencies here locally that utilize that system.” Bo Hess (43:23), supporting the plan: keeping “that one Flock camera is a strategic public safety move,” “until Axon has the type of database that we can access like Flock.” The chief confirmed the counts in the same exchange: the city owned 11 cameras, the county 22. Kim Roney, same briefing: “I think even having one of them isn’t good for our community.”

At the Aug 20, 2026 briefing the mayor disclosed that Flock now requires a 10-camera minimum for system access, and a staff memo read into the record said the city is “expanding and integrating Axon’s automated license plate reader capabilities” while Flock is “rightsized.” Chief Stepp’s Aug 14 memo, in the Aug 25 agenda packet, says APD “is not pursuing a full transition away from Flock” and is “exploring transitioning from its existing Flock camera deployment to a Flock software license that would preserve access to the Flock network without maintaining the same level of APD-owned Flock infrastructure.”

The eight demands

Assembled from the cities that exited, and from Evanston, where Flock reinstalled terminated cameras and the last came down only after a press inquiry (Evanston RoundTable). The first four end Flock. The last four prove it happened and close the doors it leaves open. Each is specific enough to put to a council member as a yes-or-no.

End Flock:

Terminate the Flock agreement in writing: not “deactivate,” not “let it wind down.”
Verified physical removal of all 11 city cameras by a date certain, publicly confirmed.
Terminate every APD Flock user account, search license, and National and statewide Lookup enrollment. This is the step that ends network access (the Austin case and the CBP case above).
Written data-deletion certification from Flock, checked against the city’s Flock transparency portal. A city policy on data handling is a city document; this is the vendor, in writing, confirming the city’s 3.1 million plate scans are gone.

Prove it, and close the doors:

Publish the paper. The termination letter, Flock’s written acknowledgment, the deletion certification, and a final list of every agency Asheville shared plate data with, posted on the city site.
Bind the informal channel. Policy language, with a penalty, restricting APD from requesting plate searches from other agencies as a workaround. APD can already reach the sheriff’s camera network and neighboring Flock towns, which is how Austin reached Round Rock after its removal.
Close the replacement door. A separate, public council vote before any fixed Axon plate reader goes up. Under the Axon contract’s baseline terms, Axon’s fixed plate readers (Outpost and Lightpost) are already authorized, with no new procurement and no council vote required. Emails released Aug 20, 2026 show Axon’s account representative’s signature line offering “Request a demo of our Fixed ALPR here!” on every message to APD, and a separate contract for 20 Axon Fleet in-car plate readers in its “final signature stage” as of mid-July 2026 (the lock-in terms).
Release the whole Axon paper. The eight-page contract was posted by the city in August 2026 (the contract, as signed); the itemized quote it references, the separate contract for 20 Axon Fleet in-car readers, and Axon’s written ACEIP opt-out confirmation were not (Promise Tracker row 12). Fixed cameras, the data program and exit rights are answered by the contract; what was bought, and in what quantity, is answered by the quote.

The resolution as adopted, Aug 25, 2026, against the eight demands

The resolution passed as written at the Aug 20 briefing; no member moved to amend it before the vote (resolution · agenda · the record).

Demand	In the resolution	What the text says
1. Terminate in writing	Yes	Section 1: “directs the City Manager to terminate the City’s contract with Flock Safety,” effective on adoption
2. Verified removal by a date certain	Partly	Section 1: “immediately request that Flock remove their hardware.” A request, no deadline, no public confirmation step. Asked Aug 25 whether the cameras would be covered while waiting, staff said that is not planned but “we can evaluate that as an option”
3. Close APD’s search accounts and network access	No	Section 2 bars city employees from searching “data collected through the City’s Flock Technology,” meaning the city’s own eleven cameras. It says nothing about APD’s logins, National Lookup, or searching other agencies’ cameras. Section 6 bars “a new agreement for Flock Technology” during the review. What has happened since the vote is noted below the table.
4. Deletion certification from Flock	No	Section 3: existing data “shall be retained, preserved, or deleted in accordance with applicable law.” On Aug 25 the chief stated the carve-out: data already moved to evidence.com for active cases stays. Staff committed to notify council when deletion is complete
5. Publish the paper	No	”Transparency and public reporting” is item 8 on the list of things the manager will study (Section 5)
6. Bind the informal channel	No	Not addressed
7. A public vote before any Axon reader goes up	No	Axon does not appear in the resolution. After the vote, Roney moved a moratorium on buying new plate readers during the review; it failed for lack of a second. The city manager’s assurance that no stationary Axon readers go up “until that community conversation happens” was given verbally
8. Release the whole Axon paper	Partly, since Aug 2026	Not addressed by the resolution. The city posted the eight-page contract on its Technology and Public Safety page in August 2026; the quote, the Fleet contract and the ACEIP confirmation are not posted

Demand 3, since the vote. On Aug 26 WLOS reported, in its own words and attributed to no official, that “Asheville police no longer have access to Flock Safety software,” and that the city manager said staff would look into covering the lenses until removal (WLOS). No city document confirms either; the Flock transparency portal is the check, and it refused an automated request on Sept 17. On Sept 23 the city’s Technology and Public Safety page stated that APD “has deactivated all user accounts and access to the Flock system,” and the portal, read in a browser, showed an overview paragraph with its policy and usage sections gone. A city statement and an emptied portal are consistent with closure; neither is Flock’s confirmation or a city document listing the accounts closed, so the score stays No.

What the resolution adds that the demands did not ask for: Section 4 states the city “does not utilize any facial recognition technology” and bars linking Flock data to any outside facial-recognition system; Section 5 orders a review with ten items, including “an independent civil-liberties policy reviewer,” protections for “immigration enforcement, reproductive healthcare, First Amendment-protected activity,” and, as item 10, “whether the City should resume use of Flock Technology”; Section 6 bars buying, leasing, activating, or deploying Flock technology during the review.

Section 6 and the chief’s Aug 14 memo point in different directions: the memo plans a Flock software license that keeps network access; Section 6 bars a new Flock agreement during the review; Section 5, item 10, leaves resumption as a study question. The memo also counts 86 Flock cameras in Buncombe County, 11 of them the city’s, and sets the replacement calendar: “By February 2027, APD expects to complete the planned reduction of its Flock contract and have the Axon ALPR infrastructure operational.”

Communities that ended contracts, and what happened next

The full dated table is at Communities that ended or limited camera contracts. The cases this page’s demands rest on:

Macon County, NC, July 14, 2026: commissioners voted 5 to 0 to let the Flock contract lapse; twelve cameras came down (Smoky Mountain News).
Austin, TX: the contract expired June 30, 2025; in February 2026 KUT reported APD had kept searching Flock’s network through two neighboring towns (KUT). Demand 3.
Evanston, IL: terminated August 2025; Flock reinstalled cameras in September; the last came down months later after a press inquiry (Evanston RoundTable). Demands 1, 2, and 5.
Guadalupe County, TX, Aug 7, 2026: terminated citing “public scrutiny” (KSAT); WLOS reported more than 20 jurisdictions ended or began ending Flock use in July 2026 (WLOS).

What the Axon contract’s baseline terms provide

Asheville’s Axon agreement rides on the Sourcewell cooperative contract 101223-AXN and its embedded Axon Master Services Agreement. The signed Asheville contract, posted in August 2026, adds a thirty-day termination clause that it makes subject to the Sourcewell terms, a non-appropriation clause with device return, and a Fusus-only exit if the grant fails (the contract, as signed); the baseline it rides on provides:

Subscriptions auto-renew for an additional five years at end of term;
“Payment obligations are non-cancelable”; no termination for convenience; exit only for Axon’s breach or budget non-appropriation, with early exit triggering an invoice for the difference between bundle discounts and list price;
Fixed plate readers (Axon Outpost and Lightpost) authorized under the contract’s ALPR amendment;
Axon’s default program using agency data for product improvement, on by default and revocable (row 7 records the July 16, 2026 opt-out email);
Facial recognition: neither authorized nor prohibited in 112 pages;
Pricing declared confidential, with the agency required to notify Axon before any public-records disclosure.

For comparison, Denver’s council held its Axon plate-reader deal to a 1-year term, a 50-camera cap, 21-day retention, no vendor-run national database, and per-query audit trails (What Axon Contracts Do). The vendor’s own record, including the 2022 resignation of nine of its twelve AI ethics board members (NPR) and EFF’s July 2025 finding that its Draft One report writer discards the AI draft on export (EFF), is on Axon. Syracuse made the same Flock-to-Axon swap; local critics told CNY Central months later that it “solved nothing” (CNY Central).

What one person can do now

Watch the removal. The resolution asks Flock to remove the 11 cameras. DeFlock hosts the crowd-sourced camera map, so removals can be checked against it; the Flock transparency portal shows whether APD’s network access ends. If the portal page disappears instead, that is a finding; send it via Get Involved.
File the paper trail. The Records Center has pre-written requests for the termination letter, the deletion certification, the data-sharing agency list, and the audit logs.
Take demands 5 through 8 to the Public Safety Committee, Thursday, Sept 24, 1:00 PM: Asheville City Council Public Safety Committee, Remote meeting (virtual, per NC Gen. Stat. 166A-19.24(f)); livestream on Engagement Hub or the City's YouTube Channel, call-in (855) 925-2801 code 11543. Live call-in comments during the public comment period: (855) 925-2801, code 11543, then press * and select option 3. Pre-recorded voicemail comments accepted at the same number/code until 5:00 p.m. the day before the meeting. Written comments to publicsafetycommittee@PublicInput.com, also closing 5:00 p.m. the day before.: ask for the wind-down status and the portal’s National Lookup state as a written staff report.
Email council at avl-city-council@publicinput.com, which goes to all members and into the public record. Name the demands by number. The comment procedure is on Speak at Council.
Put the two-part question to every November candidate (Election 2026): will you vote to end APD’s Flock search accounts with written deletion certification, and will you require a separate council vote for any fixed Axon plate reader?

The budget exit in the contracts

Axon’s terms let the city terminate if funds are “not appropriated or otherwise legally available,” and the Sourcewell contract makes that effective “immediately upon notice,” with the hardware returned within thirty days to avoid paying the difference to list price. Flock’s standard terms allow non-appropriation termination “at the end of the applicable fiscal year upon thirty (30) days’ written notice.” Every council budget vote is therefore a vote on these contracts. The clauses, quoted, and the statutes behind them: What Axon Contracts Do.

What the Aug 25 vote did not touch

The RTIC: the center Flock fed keeps operating toward its 2027 launch, connecting body cameras, drones, Axon’s in-car plate readers, and private cameras through Fusus, under a 7.5-year Axon contract running to 2033 that, per its baseline terms, auto-renews for five more years.
The Axon contract: posted by the city in August 2026 (the contract, as signed); the quote, the Fleet contract and the ACEIP confirmation are not (row 12). It governs the data program, fixed plate readers, and exit rights.
The county network: the sheriff’s roughly 2,000 Fusus cameras, including about 1,500 in schools, and the county’s Flock cameras, none of them subject to a city council vote. The sheriff is on the November 3, 2026 ballot.
The promises: no facial recognition, no ICE sharing, audits, dashboards; each a revisable policy rather than an ordinance. No Asheville official has committed to a surveillance-oversight ordinance (CCOPS is the ACLU model).
The election: four of the six votes that approved the RTIC are on the November 3, 2026 ballot.

The two vendors, side by side: Flock Safety and Axon.

Explorer