WNC Surveillance Watch.

Kim Roney

5 min read

Title
City Council member · music teacher & piano technician · kimroney4asheville.com · official page
In this role since
Dec 2020 (elected Nov 2020; re-elected Nov 2024)
Current term ends
Dec 2028
Next voter decision
Nov 3, 2026: running for Mayor against Esther Manheimer, having advanced from the March 3 primary with 33.43% (BPR); her council seat is not on the 2026 ballot · Election 2026

Surveillance record

Votes on the city’s camera decisions:

  • Jan 24, 2023: sole no on the interlocal agreement joining the Buncombe Sheriff’s Fusus network (passed 4–1). (WLOS)
  • Mar 25, 2025: pulled the first RTIC grant off the consent agenda, submitted 29 written questions to APD on data control and constitutional implications (no public answers had been posted as of Sept 8, 2026), voted no (passed 6–1). (BPR)
  • May 7, 2026: on the plan to keep one Flock camera for network access: “I think even having one of them isn’t good for our community.”
  • May 12, 2026: sole no on the $1.14M grant and 7.5-year Axon contract; presented ACLU-NC and EFF concerns; afterward: “21 people were sent home without the opportunity to speak.” (BPR)
  • Aug 20, 2026: at the briefing on the termination resolution she read the staff memo on the Axon plate reader expansion into the record and asked for it to be published, noted that exiting cities have had to cover cameras Flock did not remove, asked for the ACEIP documents to go on the city’s dashboard, cited the ACLU’s guidance against real-time intelligence centers (“we still have some work to do there”), and asked for overflow rooms for the Aug 25 meeting. On the replacement: “if we cancel the Flock contract and replace [it] with Axon’s same functioning equipment, then we still have a violation of our constitutional rights problem.”
  • Aug 25, 2026: moved the termination resolution, which passed 5 to 2, and secured two commitments on the record: staff will notify council when the Flock data deletion is complete, and covering the cameras while Flock retrieves them “can [be] evaluate[d]… as an option.” Minutes after passage she moved a moratorium on purchasing new plate readers during the city’s review. It failed for lack of a second. Before the vote: “I have concerns about false positive alerts, about the homicide count shift, about the clearance benchmarks. It has not been shown to me that the clearance rates and justice have been realized by Flock cameras going up in Asheville.”
  • Sept 18, 2026: at the Radio Asheville mayoral forum (WPVM 103.7): “I’ve consistently voted against and opposed automated license plate readers, the grants that are used for surveillance technology and interlocal agreements, designed for warrantless searches, and I made the successful motion to end Asheville’s [Flock] contract” (23:07). “What does it look like to support closed loop systems and an easy process to submit evidence when there’s a crime?” (24:26). On the city’s new technology page: “You can look at the Flock contract. You can look at the Axon agreements because Axon also provides license plate reader technology in our community” (24:43). And: “we don’t want for-profit private surveillance technology that’s designed for warrantless searches that puts us at risk of that information being used by armed federal agents like Homeland Security and ICE to track people accessing reproductive care” (24:54). (forum video)

In her words

  • On process (2025): “We’re really missing those levels of public transparency and accountability… skipping all of those steps and burying it into the consent agenda.”
  • At the first 2026 mayoral debate: concerns about “a billionaire-owned, AI-fueled, for-profit tech company… working with ICE and Homeland Security and also the police department to surveil people without a warrant.” And: “For me, it’s important to do the people’s work in public.” (BPR)
  • On the check-in system, same debate: “a series of three-by-threes and sometimes one-on-one meetings where staff might spend anywhere from, like, eight to 10 hours with agendas and presentations, counting votes throughout the day… none of those meetings are public. And there’s no minutes.” Per Manheimer’s own account, Roney is the only member who opposes the practice.

On the Flock termination, Aug 20, 2026: “This is the wrong tool to solve the problem.” And the frame she keeps returning to: “The police department needs to have tools to solve crimes. We want to have justice realized in our communities,” but “the kinds of tools that we use, it’s so important to have public engagement and trust around” (WLOS).

Beyond the dais

Consulted ACLU-NC and EFF during the RTIC debate; appeared on the RE:FUSUS panel (May 25, 2026, DayTrip) alongside Benn Jordan and Patrick Conant. Faces Esther Manheimer on November 3, 2026 (Election 2026).

What is pending with her

  • Public answers to the 29 questions submitted to APD in March 2025. None posted as of Sept 8, 2026.
  • The moratorium on new plate reader purchases, which failed for lack of a second on Aug 25, 2026 and which any member could move again.
  • The Flock data deletion notice and the removal of the 11 cameras, both committed to on Aug 25, 2026 (Getting Flock Out).

Region: Asheville · Last verified: September 8, 2026

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