The North Alabama Area Labor Council, NAALC, is celebrating the removal of a proposed contract to afix city garbage trucks with artificial intelligence, AI, cameras from Huntsville’s budget for the 2026 fiscal year.
Initially, the Huntsville City Council was set to vote on a proposed three-year, $972,200 contract with City Detect to outfit the city’s garbage trucks with AI-powered cameras to detect potential code violations and public works issues at their September 25 meeting. However, the city pulled that contract from the budget last week after several residents, led in-part by the NAALC, voiced their opposition to the project.
The NAALC touted the contract’s removal as a small but important victory in an official press release last Friday.
“Led by the North Alabama Area Labor Council (NAALC), AFL-CIO, the local chapter of 50501, and Indivisible, a coalition of more than 100 residents urged the city council to vote no on the cameras at the Sept. 25 city council meeting. Due to resounding opposition, the city council announced last night that they will withdraw the proposal from consideration on Sept. 25,” the NAALC stated.
“North Alabama’s unions celebrate the city council doing the right thing by listening to their constituents and withdrawing this misguided proposal from consideration,” added NAALC president and Huntsville resident Jacob Morrison.
Despite assurances from the city that the cameras would simply gather visual data—identifying potential concerns like overgrown grass, graffiti, illegal dumping or property neglect—for later review by city departments like Community Development and Public Works, residents expressed concerns over increased surveillance and fiscal irresponsibility.
“The people of Huntsville have made their voices heard that we do not want further surveillance in our communities. Pulling the proposal from the agenda is a small victory we must celebrate. This is proof that regular people have the power to make change happen!” said Geoff Angle, a 50501 local organizer.
“Spending nearly $1 million of taxpayer funds on ineffective cameras was obviously an unpopular choice. That money should be reinvested into our communities to support people, not punish them,” said Huntsville resident and NAALC member Whitney Washington. “I’d love to see grants made available to elderly or disabled homeowners who otherwise might not be able to afford to fix property violations.”
The City Council will still need to vote to remove the contract from the agenda at the September 25 meeting according to Council President John Meredith. In the meantime, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle has said that the city will reconsider the proposal in six to eight months despite calls from the public to reject the contract outright.
“Quite frankly, we need to educate people a little bit better on it,” Mayor Battle said during last Thursday’s council meeting. “We need to let people know exactly what it’s going to do, what the ramifications are, what the propensity is for their ability to actually take pictures with it, what exactly they are taking pictures of and how tightly we’re going to be able to hold on with that information.”
NAALC members say they will continue pressuring Battle and city leadership to reject the proposal entirely.
“We are concerned about the Mayor’s comments that this issue may be revisited in six to eight months,” said Morrison. “The people have made their position clear, and the labor movement will continue to monitor the situation and encourage the city of Huntsville to do the right thing.”
“We must keep the pressure on Mayor Battle for postponing the council’s ability to reject the proposal. If his word is true, we have six months to redouble our efforts,” Angle added.
City Council President Meredith and Councilor Michelle Watkins of District 1 stood alongside the NAALC in celebrating the proposal’s withdrawal and indicated their intent to continue supporting the will of their constituents.
“It is a joyous day in Huntsville as this nearly flawless effort of advocacy has proven the citizens of our great city do in fact have the power in their collective voice to shape the laws that govern their daily lives,” Meredith told the NAALC.
“Today, the people made their voices heard,” Watkins added. “Taxpayers matter, and as elected officials, we must listen and respond to the will of the community we serve.”
