- Title
- Candidate for Asheville City Council · former Asheville City Council member (Dec 2015–Dec 2020) · author of the July 2020 reparations resolution
- In this role since
- —
- Current term ends
- —
- Next voter decision
- Nov 3, 2026: City Council general; advanced from the March 3 primary (~6%) · Election 2026
Surveillance record
No votes on the current buildout (he left council before it). But Young is the only council candidate whose 2026 campaign materials contain any data-privacy commitments. From his DSA questionnaire:
- Build “a local firewall so city government is not an arm of deportation”
- Ensure local government “is not feeding a pipeline into enforcement through data, technology, or informal collaboration”
- “Strong privacy and data minimization rules”; nonpublic records “not accessed without a proper judicial warrant”
Read those against the RTIC’s design, with its 500-mile data-sharing radius and informal inter-agency lookups as the documented ICE pathway (Communities that ended or limited camera contracts), and his language describes the problem almost exactly. His first statement on the cameras came at a West Asheville candidate forum:
- Sept 16, 2026. Answered the surveillance and check-ins questions at the West Asheville council candidate forum; his words and audio are in the forum section below.
No written statement naming the RTIC, Fusus, or Flock has been found. Searched Sept 17, 2026: his campaign site (keithforavl.com), including its Issues page, whose “Fairness, Equity, and Civil Rights Protections” and “Community Trust and Transparency” sections do not mention surveillance, and regional news since the primary; the earlier search was Aug 17. His Chamber survey frames public safety as staffing and response times.
At the Sept 16, 2026 candidate forum
Words are from an audience recording this site holds, with ums and repeats removed and nothing else changed; times are minutes into it. Every candidate’s answers are on the Sept 16 forum record.
On surveillance and the Flock vote (6:03)
“If you follow my tenure on council between 2015 and 2020, there was some controversial issues that pertain to public safety, one of which was a consent to search requirement that we asked our police to have. And that was basically a protection of your Fourth Amendment right.” (6:26)
“I think some of the larger questions about the hearing from residents is privacy issues. Who controls the data? When is it used? When are the cameras being turned on? We hear every day on the news about these systems around the country where officers are not using it correctly.” (7:23)
“Can we use this system to make our public safety system stronger? Yes, but should it be the one that they agreed upon? Probably not. I think we should have a community conversation, bring people to the table, and figure out what works best for Asheville, what works best for our public safety.” (7:51)
He described his day job as a deputy clerk of Superior Court handling search warrants (6:14). He did not name the RTIC, Axon, or Flock.
On three-person check-ins out of public view (55:20)
“This started when I was on council. Nobody’s ever asked me, but I’ll tell you why. When I arrived on council, there was no information hub. Nobody said this is how you do the job. Nobody said this is the information that’s coming up. I actually had to go to staff.”
“In a 2017 UNCA council retreat, we talked about how we would bring that information in, and everybody would get the same information at the same time … That was supposed to be for information purposes.” (56:04)
“What has transpired to now, I don’t know.” (56:30)
His account of how the check-ins began is new to the record on the pre-meeting check-in sessions.
The question for him
Does the “local firewall” include the RTIC, and is the RTIC the system he said is “probably not” the right one? Would he vote to release the Axon contract, publish the audits, and pass an oversight ordinance? See Election 2026.