Asheville councilmember supports ending city's Flock contract
The short version: Asheville may ditch its Flock contract, but council member Kim Roney warns that swapping ALPR vendors isn't the same as ending the surveillance problem.
Our Take
Credit to WLOS News 13 for covering a vote that matters far beyond Asheville. A mayor calling to kill a Flock contract is a win worth celebrating, but Kim Roney's point deserves just as much attention: canceling one vendor's agreement means nothing if the city simply signs with another ALPR company doing the exact same data grab. The hardware logo isn't the issue — the issue is a network of cameras logging every car's movements, built without meaningful consent, and shared across jurisdictions with little oversight.
That's the trap a lot of 'reform' efforts fall into. Cities feel pressure, cancel a contract, and declare victory, while the underlying architecture of mass location tracking stays intact under a new brand name. Real accountability means asking who can access the data, how long it's retained, what agencies it's shared with, and whether residents ever got a real say before the cameras went up in the first place.
Asheville's council meeting on Aug. 25 is a chance to set a real precedent, not just a procurement swap. If you want to see what's already watching your own streets, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your city have this fight before the cameras go in, not after, our take-action page has the tools to start.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WLOS News 13, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.