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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.

Progressives and Republicans Introduce Competing Bills to Rein In Flock Cameras

“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........

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