Summary: Buncombe County Commissioners are being asked Tuesday to approve $290,000 from forfeiture funds for the Sheriff’s Office’s FY27 FUSUS/Axon contract and a “Camera Project at IGrant.” That’s essentially all the agenda packet tells the public. Fusus can bring together numerous public and private camera feeds and other law-enforcement data, making legitimate questions about privacy, data sharing, oversight, and civil liberties particularly important. We believe Commissioners should not approve additional funding for this technology without first explaining what the money will purchase, how the system is being used, what safeguards govern it, and what results it has produced.

The Facts: The Buncombe County Commission agenda includes a Sheriff’s Office request to appropriate $290,000 from the County’s Forfeitures Fund balance.

The agenda packet says the money will cover two things:

• the Sheriff’s Office’s FY27 FUSUS/Axon contract; and

• a “Camera Project at IGrant.”

The recommended action is simply to “Approve budget amendment.” The packet includes no description of the contract, the camera project, how the $290,000 is divided between them, or what additional or continuing surveillance capabilities the expenditure would provide. Presumably “IGrant” refers to the Sheriff’s Illegal Gun Reduction and Narcotics Taskforce, but the supplied documents do not indicate what the acronym refers to. The accompanying budget amendment provides no additional explanation beyond identifying the funding source as the Forfeitures Fund balance.

The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) already operates a Real Time Intelligence Center. On its website, BCSO says the center gathers intelligence to help deploy resources and can receive information from a network of community stakeholders. Its Community Camera Registry allows residents and businesses to register cameras and offers an option through which participating camera owners can stream live video directly to BCSO.

Fusus, now owned by Axon, is a broader real-time intelligence platform. Axon says it can integrate public and private cameras, body-worn and vehicle cameras, license-plate readers, drones, alerts and other information into a common interface.

You can read the request for board action here. The proposed budget amendment can be found here.

We raised similar concerns in August when Asheville City Council was considering its use of Flock and Axon technology. Supporters argue that surveillance tools can improve public safety. But these technologies also raise important questions about privacy, tracking people’s movements, data sharing, misuse, mistaken identification and the gradual creep of surveillance capabilities. Before the government spends public money on surveillance, residents deserve to know what benefits are claimed and demonstrated, what risks exist, and what safeguards are in place. That deserves a public conversation – not a two-line budget item.

Our concern isn’t simply that the County uses Fusus or Axon. It’s that Commissioners are being asked to appropriate another $290,000 for a surveillance contract and camera project without telling residents what they are paying for.

These questions are especially important because surveillance systems can expand incrementally. A new camera, integration, or data source may look modest when considered on its own, while subtly creating a much larger surveillance network.

Commissioners may ultimately conclude that some or all of this expenditure is justified. But residents should not have to consent on trust alone to surveillance technology with demonstrated risks. The County should provide enough information for the public – and Commissioners themselves – to understand what is being purchased, what risks exist, and what protections accompany it.

Things to do: Email the Buncombe County Commission and ask members to postpone the $290,000 appropriation until the Sheriff’s Office publicly explains what the money will purchase, how the technology is used, what safeguards govern it, and what results the relevant existing systems have already produced.

Email Template: You can send an email to the Buncombe County Commission by filling out the form below. Our email tool will send an individually addressed email to the recipients, and enable us to track how many emails were sent overall in the campaign. If you prefer to write your own email, you can copy and paste (and adapt) our template text – please cc: or bcc: info@gapavl.org on your individualized email, so we can better track how many emails were sent. 

Important: If you receive a response to your email, please forward it to us at info@gapavl.org so we can reflect that in the report back.

To: alfred.whitesides@buncombecounty.org, amanda.edwards@buncombecounty.org, drew.ball@buncombecounty.org, jennifer.horton@buncombecounty.org, martin.moore@buncombecounty.org, parker.sloan@buncombecounty.org, terri.wells@buncombecounty.org

CC: or BCC: info@gapavl.org

Subject: Please provide more information before approving $290,000 for surveillance technology

Dear Chair Wells and County Commissioners,

Please postpone voting on the proposed $290,000 appropriation for the Sheriff’s Office’s surveillance technology and contracts until the public has more information.

The agenda does not explain what the money will actually buy or why it is needed. Before approving the funding, please ensure the public has sufficient answers to the following important questions:

• what technology and services the $290,000 will purchase, including how much is for the existing contract and how much is for the camera project;
• what new or continuing surveillance capabilities the funding will support;
• what privacy, access, sharing, and retention rules apply to whatever new capabilities will be created as a result of this funding;
• how the Sheriff’s Office reviews use of the system to identify possible misuse and ensure misuse is avoided, and whether the results of these reviews are made public; and
• what evidence the Sheriff’s Office has about the technology’s public-safety benefits and potential harms.

Supporters of surveillance technology argue that it can improve public safety. Critics raise important concerns about privacy, tracking people’s movements, data sharing, and misuse resulting in civil liberties violations. Decisions about this technology deserve transparency and public discussion.

Please postpone a vote on the appropriation until the Sheriff’s Office provides this information and the public has the opportunity to consider its real implications.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Name]
[Address or neighborhood, if desired]