On May 12, 2026, Asheville City Council voted 6–1 to accept $1.14 million in federal funding and authorize a 7.5-year contract with Axon for a Real-Time Intelligence Center: a police hub connecting license plate readers, body cameras, drones, and private security cameras across the city, built on a county network that had been watching public housing and schools for four years before anyone was asked. This site documents how that decision was made, what the county was already doing, what the companies sell, and what happens next.
This site is kept by Asheville and WNC residents. We watched the May 12 meeting live, and it bothered us how hard the process made it for residents to know about the decision, comment on it, or shape it. So we started keeping records: meeting transcripts, the city’s own videos and documents, the sheriff’s policies, the contracts, the audit logs. Local decisions are where residents still have real influence, whatever your politics, and this one is still being made.
Everything here is sourced. Quotes link to timestamps in the city’s own videos; documents link to the originals; you can check any claim yourself. We’re not neutral (our views are on the page), but the site is built to be useful whether you share them or not.
Tuesday, August 25, 5 PM: council votes on ending the Flock contract. The resolution covers the city's 11 Flock cameras. It leaves the 162 Axon plate readers in patrol cars, the chief's plan to expand them, and the unreleased contracts untouched. What is actually being decided, section by section; the angle that matters to you, with a fact and a page behind it; the ask that fits; and where to send it, with one worked example: Make the vote count. Written comments go in the record only if received by 9 a.m. Tuesday at avl-city-council@publicinput.com.
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The whole story in one look
Every entry links to a deeper page with sources.
Happening now (updated Aug 23, 2026)
- Tuesday, Aug 25, 5 PM: the Flock vote. What council is deciding section by section, the angle that matters to you, and where to send it by 9 a.m. Tuesday. Make the vote count · The resolution, scored
- The sheriff's own audit log. 337,838 access records, released by the county: 58% of camera viewing on public housing, 95% of it live, three accounts doing half of it, every timestamp withheld. What the log shows
- The way out is the budget. Neither contract cancels "for any reason"; both end when council doesn't fund them, Axon's immediately on notice. The clauses, quoted. What Axon Contracts Do
- The county side of the record. The sheriff's RTIC, plate-reader and drone policies, the forfeiture money, a neighbor's 2,048-agency sharing list, and every decider by region. Buncombe County · People · The Vendors
- The RTIC's rulebook surfaced via records requests: the draft policy, the private workgroup's notes, and the Axon contract emails. The RTIC Policy
- The permanent police chief decision is expected by the end of September, made by the city manager, not by any vote. Who's deciding
Where to start
More than a hundred pages. Start with what you need:
Understand what happened
See what it means for people
Know who decides
The site, in eight sections
Each section has its own front page with every page in it described, and every page shows its section at the top so you can step back up.
- The Record: how it happened here, meeting by meeting, from the city’s own video and documents.
- The System: what was approved and what it does: the center, what a scan becomes, who is watched first, the sheriff’s own audit log, the money.
- Western North Carolina: the ten communities around us and the state laws they all run under.
- The Vendors: Axon and Flock, their contracts, their sales script, the way out.
- The Wider Fight: what these systems have done elsewhere and how other places got out.
- People: every official, candidate, and institution, by region, with the next date voters can act.
- Act: Tuesday’s vote, three minutes at the podium, records requests, citable facts, the ballot.
- Reference: the primary documents and the full bibliography.
Or go straight to Browse Everything: every page, on one list.
Use this site as your notebook
This is built to be a working tool, not just a story. For anyone who wants to go deeper than a headline:
- Verify anything yourself. Every quote links a timestamp in the city’s own videos; every document links its source. If we say someone said it, you can watch them say it.
- File a records request. Seventeen pre-written requests, with the exact filing portals, that would answer this site’s open questions. A refusal is an answer too.
- Cite the facts. Sourced, citable facts formatted for letters, op-eds, and petitions.
- Read the primary sources (minutes, resolutions, policies, contracts) and the full bibliography.
- See what changed. Every release, the pages it touched, and the documents behind it.
- Read what your neighbors said. 36 residents already made the arguments at council, on the record, verbatim.
Why we built this
The RTIC is expected fully operational by summer 2027. The contract runs to 2033. The oversight that matters (the audits, the policies, the promises about ICE and facial recognition, who gets hired to run it) is being decided now, in the years when attention usually fades. We wanted one place where a neighbor could understand the whole thing in ten minutes, check every fact behind it, and find a next step that fits them.
Our view is on every page: we don’t think interconnected mass-surveillance systems should exist at all. You don’t have to share it for this site to be useful to you. At a bare minimum, know what’s happening, know where the critical points of oversight and governance sit (the audits, the contracts, the appointments, the votes), and know that at this phase of the rollout, communities still control their own future together. That’s true whichever way you’d steer it.
This is a living workbook: it updates as meetings happen, records surface, and promises get tested.