Our collective endorses the "Sunshine Over Surveillance" open letter published by Sunshine Labs, which urges Asheville City Council to vote NO on a $1.14M DOJ grant to expand surveillance through the creation of a "real time intelligence center," and the authorization of a separate 7.5-year contract with Axon.

In particular, we agree with the following major objections articulated by the authors:

"Public participation and procurement have been bypassed. Council has heard from only APD and the vendors. The 7.5-year Axon contract has had no committee review and is being authorized through Sourcewell—a cooperative-purchasing exemption that bypasses competitive bidding.

Residents need more information. The proposed Axon contract and the existing Flock contract are both unpublished. APD has refused a public records request for Flock audit logs. One agency on APD's Flock data-sharing list is Florida Fish & Wildlife—reported by @404mediaco to be running thousands of Flock searches on behalf of ICE.

Federal money is not free money. The current administration has explicitly conditioned federal funding on local ICE cooperation and pursued legal action against jurisdictions that limit it. The grant resolution itself acknowledges that compliance terms will be set "at the Federal level"—and reviewed only AFTER acceptance. Separately, Axon held approximately $31.9 million in ICE contracts in 2025.

Civilian oversight has been dismantled. Asheville's Citizens Police Advisory Committee was paused in 2020 and dismantled in 2024. APD points to self-audits—but in San Francisco, SFPD shared Flock data with ICE and out-of-state agencies 1.6 million times in violation of state law, undetected through two consecutive quarterly audits."

---

As an abolitionist organization, Firestorm believes that police reform is unrealistic and opposes any investment in policing. Sunshine Labs demonstrates that even non-abolitionists should reject the undemocratic and opaque proposals under consideration by City Council.

#DeFlock #AntiSurveillance #AbolishICE #FeministBookstore

Got Flocked

https://lemmy.world/post/46523507

City Learns Flock Accessed Cameras in Children's Gymnastics Room as a Sales Pitch Demo, Renews Contract Anyway

https://literature.cafe/post/31290700

Colorado lawmakers abandon effort to limit police use of Flock cameras, surveillance data

https://lemy.lol/post/64838991

As AI license plate readers spread across Colorado, grassroots movements push back

https://lemy.lol/post/64722289