The camera network was sold to commissioners as a business partnership (Buncombe County) and to businesses as public safety (Follow the Money · Before You Plug In). These are the institutions in between.
Kit Cramer, Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce
President and CEO. The Chamber’s “Public Safety for All” campaign (February 15, 2023) told member businesses to “plug into Buncombe County’s Community Camera Registry Program,” the registry that feeds Fusus, alongside a break-in prevention session with APD and a budget survey (Chamber). The page carries no individual byline. No Chamber or Cramer statement on the RTIC, oversight, retention, or federal access has been found since; the Chamber’s 2026 news feed contains none. The question: does the Chamber still encourage camera registration now that the registry feeds a federally funded intelligence center, and has it asked what the network shares?
Hayden Plemmons, Asheville Downtown Association and the BID
Executive director of the Downtown Association, which operates the Downtown Improvement District. ADID’s public-safety programming in 2025 and 2026 (a panel with APD, the fire department’s REST team, and the county’s Continuum of Care; a June 5, 2026 session on lighting and sightlines with Interim Chief Jackie Stepp) has not mentioned cameras, Fusus, or the registry at all (ADA). No institutional position for or against registration has been found. The question: has the BID ever taken a position on its assessed businesses joining the network, and why has the subject been absent from its own safety series?
Vic Isley, Explore Asheville (Buncombe County TDA)
President and CEO, compensation reported near $578,000 after a contract renewal (Asheville Watchdog). Explore Asheville carried the Chamber’s camera-registry message on its own platform; no independent TDA statement on surveillance has been found, and state law bars occupancy-tax money from public safety (Follow the Money). The question: has the TDA board ever considered what a visibly surveilled downtown does to the brand it spends $34.5M a year marketing?
The business voices on record
The September 2023 letter from about 40 downtown businesses demanding more police presence, organized by restaurateur William Dissen (The Market Place), asked for “removal of vagrants from public property and our city streets” and did not mention cameras; it preceded the sheriff’s downtown patrols and the Chamber’s registry push by months (Follow the Money). The clearest on-record business positions since come from retailers, not institutions: Rebecca Hecht (Shining Rock Goods) refusing to register; Asia Guyer (Indigo Sun) asking “How much autonomy and comfort are you willing to give up for safety?” (WLOS, July 8, 2026).
Region: Asheville · Last updated: Aug 22, 2026