The commitments APD and the city made as the RTIC was approved, each with who said it, when, and what the record shows since. None is an ordinance; each is a policy or a statement.
The Axon contract runs to Dec 31, 2033. The center is projected fully operational in spring 2027.
The ledger
| # | Promise | Who said it, when | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No facial recognition | Interim Chief Jackie Stepp, spring 2026; Resolution 26-97 | Untested: In Policy 1703 since the July 9 draft; the chief can revise it without a vote. in full |
| 2 | No data to ICE or federal agencies without a court order | Deputy Chief Sean Aardema, to WLOS, May 14, 2026 | Untested: No list of agencies with access to Axon’s plate-reader data or to Fusus has been published. in full |
| 3 | Search-term blocks on immigration and reproductive topics | Tech Manager James Wingo, July 8, 2026 | Untested: Keyword filters, self-administered; a dishonest reason field passes them. in full |
| 4 | Quarterly audits of RTIC access and searches | APD, July 2026 | Untested: First window closes about Oct 2026; the review goes to the chief, with no duty to publish. in full |
| 5 | 30-day plate-reader retention (state law allows 90) | APD policy, as reported by the Watchdog | Contradicted: The 30 days was Flock’s; the Axon portal shows 21 days, and no written policy sets any period. in full |
| 6 | Tech used “solely for lawful purposes… to enhance or provide for public safety” | Resolution attached by Bo Hess, May 12, 2026 | Aspirational: a resolution, not an ordinance. No enforcement mechanism, no reporting duty, no penalty. “Lawful purposes” includes nearly everything. in full |
| 7 | City owns all data; not shared or sold by vendors | Interim Chief Stepp, April 2026 | Untested: The posted master agreement lets Axon access agency content and usage data; the opt-out is unconfirmed. in full |
| 8 | ”Robust audit trail built into all of this” | Interim Chief Stepp | Contradicted: The city refused the Flock audit log in September 2025; the dispute remains open. in full |
| 9 | Public transparency via RTIC tours | APD, June 2026 | Kept: Tours run Thursday afternoons; they show the room, not the searches. in full |
| 10 | Public ALPR transparency dashboards (Axon + Flock) | APD’s transparency page | Partly kept: The Axon portal is live; the Flock portal is down to an overview paragraph. in full |
| 11 | Flock contract ends and all city-owned Flock cameras come down (a condition of the Axon switch) | Council member Sage Turner’s condition for her yes vote | Broken: Terminated Aug 25; no proof yet that the cameras are down or the data deleted. in full |
| 12 | The complete Axon contract “will be made available to Council and the public” | Turner, Aug 13, 2026, relaying the city | Partly kept: The eight-page contract is public; the quote and the Fleet contract are not. in full |
Also worth knowing: APD’s ALPR policy (Policy 505) (the written policy state law requires) was revised May 5, 2026, one week before the council vote, and already assigned duties to “the RTIC supervisor” for a center council hadn’t yet approved. Primary sources: Documents.
Each promise, in full
Who made each commitment, with the source, and the record behind its status.
1. No facial recognition
Who said it, when. Interim Chief Jackie Stepp, repeatedly, spring 2026; Resolution 26-97 states tools shall not be applied “in a manner which utilizes facial recognition”
Status: Untested. Upgraded Aug 20, 2026: the released Policy 1703 drafts show the ban now in APD’s own rulebook (“RTIC personnel will not use tools or platforms that use facial recognition technology”), though it was absent from the first two drafts and appeared only July 9. The workgroup notes add a new Stepp commitment: any future use “would require a return to Council for approval.” Still policy, not law: the chief can revise it without a public vote, GAP’s enforceable ban was never offered, and the vendor controls the feature roadmap for 7.5 years.
2. No data to ICE or federal agencies without a court order
Who said it, when. Deputy Chief Sean Aardema, in WLOS’s May 14, 2026 reporting on the vote: “We control Axon Fusus and we will not be sharing information with federal immigration.” (Not on the meeting recording; venue is WLOS’s coverage. WLOS)
Status: Untested. Nationally, ICE reached systems like these through other agencies running searches as favors, without a direct request to the local department (documented cases). APD narrowed Flock sharing from a 500-mile radius to four states in August 2026 (Getting Flock Out). No list of agencies with access to Axon’s plate-reader data or to Fusus has been published, and Policy 1703 does not mention immigration.
3. Search-term blocks on immigration and reproductive topics
Who said it, when. Tech Manager James Wingo, July 8, 2026: blocks on “anything to do with immigration, anything to do with reproductive issues” (WLOS)
Status: Untested. Keyword filters, self-administered. The Texas abortion search was logged under a “missing person” pretext; a keyword block doesn’t catch a dishonest reason field.
4. Quarterly audits of RTIC access and searches
Who said it, when. APD, July 2026 (WLOS)
Status: Untested. First audit window closes about Oct 2026; the committee next meets 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.. The mechanism is now in writing (Policy 1703, 1703.4.D): a quarterly random review of Fusus access logs by Professional Standards, “submitted to the chief of police or designee.” Internal end to end, no commitment to publish, and Sheriff Miller told the policy workgroup plainly that audits “serve internal purposes rather than the public directly.” The request is drafted on Asking About the RTIC; CAMS is campaigning to make the logs public.
5. 30-day plate-reader retention
Who said it, when. APD policy (Watchdog)
Status: Contradicted. The 30 days was Flock’s. At the April 28 work session the vendors gave the Axon side as 90 days, with felony categories kept for years and annual re-preservation beyond that (on video, 1:39:53). The chief’s Aug 14 memo cut Flock’s search window from 30 to 21 days. The city’s Axon portal showed 21 days for plate reads and hotlist hits on Sept 23, 2026, with search reasons “stored indefinitely” in audit logs. None of it is in a written policy: Policy 1703 sets no retention period, and the city’s own page still says 30 days (the city page, annotated). Flock’s own stated default is 7 days.
6. Technology used solely for lawful purposes
Who said it, when. Council resolution attached by Bo Hess, May 12, 2026 (BPR)
Status: Aspirational. A resolution, not an ordinance. No enforcement mechanism, no reporting duty, no penalty. “Lawful purposes” includes nearly everything.
7. The city owns all data, and vendors do not share or sell it
Who said it, when. Interim Chief Stepp, April 2026 (Watchdog)
Status: Untested. The master agreement the city posted in August 2026 says the agency “controls and owns” its content, lets Axon access that content for troubleshooting and to enforce the agreement, lets Axon use usage data to develop “current and future Axon products,” and enrolls the agency by default in Axon’s data program (the terms, quoted). Released emails show the city attorney’s office flagged the default enrollment and Axon’s representative wrote “I’ve opted you out” (July 16, 2026); the opt-out is not in the contract text, and Axon’s written confirmation has not been posted. The chief told council May 12: “Axon neither has access to the Fusus or to the system, or retains data.” The row gets a status when Axon’s confirmation is posted.
8. A robust audit trail
Who said it, when. Interim Chief Stepp (Annie Dance)
Status: Contradicted. The city has already refused to show the trail. A July 2025 records request for APD’s Flock network audit logs was denied under G.S. 20-183.31(b) and the criminal-intelligence exemption; the dispute remains open.
9. Public transparency via RTIC tours
Who said it, when. APD, June 2026 (WLOS)
Status: Kept. Tours run Thursday afternoons, 2 to 4 PM; the city’s page says every Thursday and this site has carried every other Thursday (registration: 828-259-5881). Tours show the room, not the searches. The questions in this table can be put to the guide.
10. Public plate-reader transparency dashboards
Who said it, when. APD transparency page
Status: Partly kept. Axon live, Flock emptied. The Axon portal is live and publishes retention (21 days), device counts (139 in-car readers on Sept 23, 2026) and hotlist hits; the Flock portal, read in a browser on Sept 23, shows an overview paragraph and nothing else, its policy and usage sections gone. The city’s dashboard page reappeared Aug 20, 2026 after a 404 on Aug 17, and Roney asked at the briefing for the ACEIP documents to be added to it. No public record yet confirms the 11 cameras removed or the data deleted (demands 2 and 4).
11. The Flock contract ends and the city’s Flock cameras come down
Who said it, when. Council member Sage Turner’s stated condition for her yes vote (her public post)
Status: Broken. Broken as of Aug 17, 2026, per Turner herself: “It is now clear the Flock cameras owned by the City of Asheville remain up.” Movement, Aug 19: the mayor called for a termination vote at the Aug 25 meeting (WLOS). Movement, Aug 25: council passed the termination resolution 5 to 2, directing the manager to terminate and “immediately request that Flock remove their hardware,” and staff committed on the record to notify council when data deletion is complete. Still not Kept: this row turns green when the cameras are verifiably down and APD’s Flock accounts are closed, not before; see Getting Flock Out for the difference. Note the chief’s Aug 14 memo plans a Flock software license preserving network access, and the Aug 25 chief’s statement put the deletion carve-out on the record: data moved to evidence.com for active cases stays.
12. The complete Axon contract made public
Who said it, when. Turner, Aug 13, 2026, relaying the city’s commitment (same post)
Status: Partly kept. The eight-page contract is public; the rest is not. The city posted City of Asheville Contract 92700065 (dated Aug 1, 2026, signed by the manager Aug 4, $7,423,161.15 to Dec 31, 2033) on its Technology and Public Safety page; the PDF’s date is Aug 14, and Roney thanked staff for the upload at the Aug 25 meeting (the contract, as signed; this site said otherwise until Sept 23, Corrections). Not posted: the itemized quote Q-808220-46198AS the contract references (products, quantities, unit prices, the Fusus tier), the separate contract for 20 Axon Fleet in-car plate readers that released emails show in signature in July 2026, and Axon’s written confirmation of the ACEIP opt-out. A resident requested the quote on Aug 17, 2026 and it was not provided, as the requester told the Sept 24 committee. The underlying Axon master agreement declares pricing confidential and requires notifying Axon before public-records disclosure. The row turns Kept when the quote and the Fleet contract are public.
What has changed elsewhere
The cities on Communities that ended or limited camera contracts heard versions of rows 1 to 8. The documented failures came through four mechanisms, each dated on Camera network misuse, documented cases: a policy revised by a new chief; a federal agency’s request run by a local officer as a favor; a vendor sharing setting that sent data out of state; a false reason entered in a search field. Asheville’s commitments rest on policy and personnel. Stepp is interim chief, and the mayor and three council seats are on the November 3, 2026 ballot.
The ordinance model
The ACLU’s model ordinance, CCOPS (Community Control Over Police Surveillance), adopted in other cities, would require:
- Council approval, by ordinance, for every surveillance technology: acquisition and use, with public notice and hearing first.
- Annual public use-and-impact reports: searches run, purposes, sharing, violations, costs.
- Published audit logs: the quarterly audits in row 4, as public documents.
- Hard rules in law, not policy: retention caps (WA’s new law says 21 days; Flock recommends 7), a facial recognition ban, no out-of-state or federal sharing absent a warrant, case numbers required for every search.
- Teeth: violations create suppression remedies and a private right of action; contract termination for vendor breach. (Evanston needed that clause; Flock reinstalled cameras after termination.)
- Data ownership and exit: the city owns all data, deletion on contract end, no vendor reuse, each checked against the signed contract and its master agreement.
Neighboring precedent: Apex, NC residents have already drafted a local ALPR governance ordinance; Washington State’s Driver Privacy Act shows the statutory version.
How to use this page
Quote a row number at the podium (“Promise 4: where’s the audit?”). Take it on the tour. Put it to a candidate. When a promise is tested, kept or broken, the status changes, with a source, and the change is dated.
Related: Speak at Council · Claims Library · What Is the RTIC