Cancelling the Flock contract in Asheville!
The short version: Asheville city council member Kim Roney highlights a council vote to cancel the city's Flock Safety contract, a win credited to community organizing.
Our Take
Credit where it's due: Kim Roney is giving voice to something we don't see often enough — a city council actually putting "cancel the Flock contract" on the agenda. Whatever happens at that Tuesday meeting, the fact that it's up for a vote at all shows that organized, persistent public pressure can move elected officials who initially signed off on blanket ALPR surveillance without much scrutiny.
Asheville joins a growing list of towns where residents pushed back after realizing what these contracts actually authorize: a private company logging every passing vehicle, retaining the data, and sharing it across a nationwide network with little independent oversight. Roney frames this as a community win, and that's the right frame — these reversals rarely happen because a vendor volunteers more transparency. They happen because people show up, ask hard questions, and refuse to let "it's just for finding stolen cars" go unchallenged.
If you're in a town still debating whether to renew or terminate a Flock deal, this is the playbook: show up to council, ask for the audit logs, ask who else gets access to your plate data, and don't let vague public-safety promises substitute for real answers. Check our camera map to see what's already deployed near you, and visit our take-action page for tools to bring this fight to your own city council.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Kim Roney for Asheville, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.