Nobody voted against it

How $2.64M of drones got approved without a vote on drones

Every step below is a document. The pattern is the finding: the decision was made by staff and ratified inside a $1.3 billion budget, where nobody has to put their name next to the word “surveillance”.

• 9 MayTue · 2023
  Chief Steve Drew pitches drones to CouncilAt a work session — open to the public, closed to comment — the police chief presents drones that reach a scene in two minutes. Councilman John Eley: “That could save lives… It makes me feel better.” Vice Mayor Curtis Bethany: “If I had a top three things to figure out before it's even launched, privacy is top three.”13News Now, 15 May 2023
• 23 JanThu · 2025
  Alan Archer signs the Axon Fusus deal: seven years, $1,000,000FususONE, the crime-center platform that fuses every camera feed, plate read and gunshot alert into one screen, bought through a Sourcewell cooperative contract — so no local bid, no public solicitation — for 84 months, 1 Nov 2024 to 31 Oct 2031. $100,000 in year one, $150,000 a year after. Signature block: Alan K. Archer, City Manager.Agreement, DocumentCloud
• 17 DecWed · 2025
  Flock signs the drone contractDan Haley, Flock's Chief Legal Officer, signs contract 26-1342-00: $680,000 in year one, $980,000 a year after that, 36 months, renewable for 36 more. Retention period on the order form: 30 days.Contract, DocumentCloud
• 19 DecFri · 2025
  Alan Archer signs it for the city — as Acting City ManagerThe contract is executed under the City Manager's procurement authority. No council resolution appears on its face. Council's role is to fund it, which it does through the budget.Contract, DocumentCloud
• 24 MarTue · 2026
  The FY2027 budget arrives with the drones insideThe City Manager's recommended budget lists “continued investment in the Drones as First Responders Program to improve emergency response times” under health, safety and community welfare — one bullet among firefighters, police officers and homeless outreach.Transmittal memo, nnva.gov
• 28 AprTue · 2026
  No amendmentsAt the budget work session no council member submits an amendment to anything. Vice Mayor Bethany calls that “a sign of strong collaboration between the administration and council.” Councilman Coleman reports that seniors at a town hall had concerns about drones until the chief explained the program.Newport News Daily, 10 May 2026
• 12 MayTue · 2026
  Council adopts the budget 7–0Ordinance 8171-26 appropriates the FY2027 budget, drones included. Every member votes yes. Real estate tax stays at $1.18.WAVY; Ordinance 8171-26
• 17 JunWed · 2026
  Launch dayCity Manager Archer tells WHRO the drones “are really not intended for surveillance purposes. They're intended to respond to what we call priority one calls for service.” Councilman Coleman: residents' concerns about surveillance are “appropriate and we welcome that but this is not about that.” The city's own flight log shows nearly half the launches since have been priority two or lower.WHRO; WTKR

The Flock plate-reader purchase orders go back to FY2022, under the previous mayor. They were paid the same way — line items in budgets adopted by council — and the same pattern holds: we found no recorded vote, in either direction, on the cameras themselves. In July 2023 the city had “at least 30” Flock cameras; it has 153 now. Waiting for expiry is not an option anyone should offer you: the 74 cameras ordered in September 2024 run to autumn 2027 at the earliest, the December 2025 cameras and the drones to 2028–29, and Fusus to October 2031.

Four of the seven are asking for your vote

Not one candidate in any of these races has taken a public position on Flock or the drones that we could find. That is not an accident; nobody has asked them on the record. Ask.