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. This site documents how that decision was made, what led up to it, and what happens next.
A bit about me: I’m writing this as an Asheville resident. I watched the May 12 meeting live, and it bothered me how hard the process made it for residents to know about the decision, comment on it, or shape it. It bothered me enough that I started keeping records: pulling meeting transcripts, checking claims against the city’s own videos and documents, and organizing what I found here. Local decisions are where individual residents still have real influence, whatever your politics, and this one is still being made.
Everything on the site is sourced. Quotes link to timestamps in the city’s own videos; documents link to the originals; you can check any claim yourself. I’m not neutral (my views are on the page), but the site is built to be useful whether you share them or not: as a history of how surveillance arrived in Asheville and the surrounding counties, a record of what’s happening now, and a starting point if you want to get involved.
Here’s the whole story in one look. Every entry links to a deeper page with sources.
Happening now (updated Aug 17, 2026)
- It's the DeFlock National Week of Action (Aug 16–22): events all week, Friday celebration at Cooperative Coffee. Details
- Council meets Tuesday, Aug 25 at 5 PM, City Hall. Public comment is open. Speak at council
- 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
This site has more than fifty pages. Start with what you need:
Understand what happened
See what it means for people
Know who decides
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 I say someone said it, you can watch them say it.
- File a records request. Fourteen 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.
- Read what your neighbors said. 36 residents already made the arguments at council, on the record, verbatim.
Share it
Screenshot this block to save it. The code takes anyone straight to this site.
Why I 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. I 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.
My own view is on every page: I 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.