As Resistance to Flock Cameras Grows, Another Surveillance Network Is Spreading

Por Christopher Cartwright — Truthout

Fusus software is being used in at least 324 US communities, with nearly 624,000 cameras connected to a Fusus network.

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More than 28,000 cameras in Atlanta are integrated into a “real-time crime center,” allowing police live access to many of their video streams. In Hawthorne, California, the city surveillance network includes more than 3,700 cameras. And in Seat Pleasant, Maryland — a town of 4,500 — police have access to one integrated camera for every three residents.

These communities are among hundreds in the U.S. that have adopted Fusus, a surveillance platform that allows police to watch live camera networks in their jurisdictions. While local resistance to Flock Safety automated license plate readers has swept the nation — including vandalism of cameras, cities canceling contracts, and a recent national week of action organized by the group DeFlock — the Fusus software has continued to spread.

Owned by Axon, the company behind Tasers and body-worn cameras, Fusus enables police to link security cameras, automated license plate readers, doorbell cameras, police dash cameras, drones, and body-worn cameras to a central hub that can use AI, according to the company’s website. The software’s distinction is its ability to integrate privately owned cameras from individuals, organizations, and businesses, whose participation the company encourages through its voluntary Community Connect program.

A Prism analysis of public information obtained from Axon’s website and the Fusus application programming interfaces (APIs) shows that the software is being used in at least 324 U.S. communities, with nearly 624,000 cameras connected to a Fusus network. These range from rural areas — such as Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana and Artesia, New Mexico — to major cities, including Dallas, Seattle, Miami, and New York City.

Privacy advocates and community organizers say this integrated system rapidly expands the reach of police power. Ed Vogel, a co-founder of Southerners Against Surveillance Systems and Infrastructure, argued that the Fusus business model inherently encourages additional surveillance.

“Anyone who is concerned about Flock safety and license plate readers should be equally concerned with Axon and Fusus,” he said. “Fusus is a tool that invites the police to build out a surveillance apparatus in order to optimize the technology. Because it’s a software that integrates a variety of surveillance tools into it, in order to make the most of it, the police want to and will try to acquire more technology so that they can integrate more tools.”

Data obtained from the APIs include the number of registered, integrated, owned, shared, and subscribed cameras. Registered cameras are those submitted to a police-maintained database. This doesn’t give law enforcement live access to each camera feed, but allows them to create a network map for future investigations. Integrated cameras are those that give police live access, and Axon’s Fusus manual says police can share these video streams with other law enforcement agencies.

Axon did not respond to multiple requests for comment or clarification on the definitions of owned, shared, and subscribed cameras. On its website’s FAQ page, the company says Fusus “promotes ethical policing by improving the accuracy of suspect identification, helping reduce reliance on potentially biased eyewitness accounts.”

In May 2023, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that nearly 150 jurisdictions used Fusus. That number has more than doubled since, according to Prism’s analysis of Fusus API data.

Georgia leads the nation in integrated cameras, with more than 275,000. An Axon-run website urging people to register and integrate cameras into the Atlanta police system, called Connect Atlanta, shows that the city has 29,855 integrated cameras, the most of any Fusus network, as of Oct. 15. Sandy Springs, Georgia, has the second-most at 16,415.

The Illinois State Police, the only state agency publicly reporting that it uses Fusus, has integrated more than 4,100 cameras. Three public universities — the University of Illinois, the University of Missouri and the University of Arizona — also use the technology.

Major Nathan Swyers, who leads the intelligence unit for the Dallas Police Department, wrote in a statement to Prism that the department has about 1,500 cameras integrated and viewable within Fusus, and over 4,000 registered cameras throughout the community. “Having this tool makes the citizens and the officers of Dallas safer,” Swyers added.

The Illinois State Police and police departments for Atlanta; Sandy Springs; Memphis, Tennessee; and Orlando, Florida, did not respond to requests for comment on how they use the technology.

Vogel suggested that the growth of Fusus, along with Flock and other surveillance technology, shows that people need to focus on the larger debate of surveillance in their communities.

“We need to focus our organizing around surveillance apparatus and not a specific technology or equipment,” he said. “And we need to focus it on the infrastructure, like real-time crime centers.”

Information on organizations and businesses that link their cameras to Fusus is limited. In Dallas, Axon stated that nearly 40 organizations have partnered with the police department. These include the American Airlines Center, QuikTrip, the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, and the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, according to a press conference held earlier this year. Those businesses and organizations did not respond to requests for comment.

Axon touts the voluntary nature of the Community Connect program. Yet Ginny Welsch, a member of the Nashville Metro Council in Tennessee who opposed the city’s proposed adoption of Fusus, said that that framing twists the argument.

“I don’t think anybody’s looking at the fact that individual citizens shouldn’t be able to opt me in to being surveilled, and that’s what they’re doing when they have this thing,” she said. “My neighbor gets to say, ‘Yes, I’m in,’ and then suddenly I’m part of this big surveillance system with them. You’re opting me into something that we don’t want.”

Every camera linked to a Fusus system needs to connect to a device sold by Axon. The annual subscription fee is $150, and hardware costs begin at $350, with higher prices for additional storage and the inclusion of built-in AI.

While Axon says the system doesn’t use facial recognition technology, it simultaneously highlights the AI capabilities. The AI analyzes the video streams, allowing police to identify vehicles, people, and objects or send alerts when certain unspecified criteria appear on camera.

According to a 2023 news report, all of the roughly 620 integrated cameras in Memphis had AI capabilities. There are now more than 3,000 integrated in the city, according to the API data.

Despite growing use of the technology, pushback is mounting.

In May, the City Council in Asheville, North Carolina, voted 6-1 to approve a Fusus contract despite significant opposition. Resident Steve Cooperman said the council ignored warnings from locals and instead relied on the story being told by police and technology companies.

“When they were presented with people who aren’t paid to do this work, who’ve done extensive research, they were very dismissive of those folks,” he said.

Nashville, Tennessee, has fully resisted implementing Fusus. Welsch — who represents Nashville’s 16th District — said the city used the software without council approval until 2024, when a renewed contract was voted down. In 2025, the council approved legislation that added some restrictions should Fusus be approved, but a contract has yet to come back for a vote.

Kelly Chieng, a local community organizer, highlighted guardrails as something that “makes people have a false sense of security.” In her opinion, pushback was successful in Nashville because groups have created firm demands and resisted compromise.

“People should resist the inevitability of this stuff, because we’re seeing stuff coming down. I don’t think we should stop at guardrails or regulation,” she said. “I think we need to keep pushing.”

Prism is an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice.

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Christopher Cartwright is a freelance journalist from Dallas focused on prisons, policing, and surveillance. His work has appeared in The Montana Free Press, The Advocate, and elsewhere. Follow him on Bluesky at @ccartwright123.bsky.social

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Fonte: Truthout