Wilson puts Seattle Police camera system expansion to Capitol Hill and the Central District on hold

In response to concerns about the abuse of the data by law enforcement and outside agencies like ICE and saying that camera technology cannot be the only answer to solving the city’s public safety issues, Mayor Katie Wilson is pausing the expansion of the city’s Real Time Crime Center camera system to Capitol Hill and the Central District and suspending the use of Automatic License Plate Readers by the Seattle Police Department.

The mayor announced the pause and “a privacy and data governance audit” of the city’s surveillance technology Thursday afternoon.

Wilson said she will leave the ongoing “pilot” of the Crime Center’s existing system of SPD cameras and traffic camera access operating for the time being. She is also giving the go ahead to the expansion of the camera system to the city’s stadium district in time for this summer’s World Cup.

“This is a decision about more than cameras,” Wilson said in a statement Thursday. “It’s about how we approach public safety, how we build trust, and how we show up for communities across this city. And it’s important that we get it right.”

The move comes despite a flurry of support for the system from Chief Shon Barnes and proponents like Seattle City Council public safety chair Bob Kettle.

CHS reported this week on the case for the cameras and expansion to Capitol Hill, the Central District, and near the city’s stadiums as SPD said its analysis showed police are “three times more likely” to make an arrest in a case when working with the analysts who staff the Real Time Crime Center with access to its network of police and traffic cameras across the city, as well as important databases and resources like the license plate reader technology that can be used to identify suspects and vehicles — and sometimes track them across Seattle.

Pressure has also grown on Wilson over what supporters say were campaign promises to address privacy issues in the planned expansion.

Wilson said Thursday that the cameras already installed in the Crime Center pilot downtown, in the International District and along Aurora would remain active.

“In the event of a surge of immigration enforcement similar to what was seen in Minneapolis, I will turn off all cameras in order to prevent them from being abused by federal authorities,” Wilson said. “While it is already policy that SPD may not share information with ICE absent a court order, I am also directing SPD to immediately inform the Mayor and Council if we learn of any information sharing with ICE of any kind, even if that information is unrelated to the CCTV program.”

Meanwhile, the new stadium district cameras ” will not be connected to the RTCC unless we are aware of a credible threat which warrants such action,” Wilson said Thursday.

The decision puts on hold the activation of cameras in the core of the Pike/Pine neighborhood along E Pike and E Pine between Broadway and 12th Ave with a mapped extension along Nagle Place and Broadway north of the core all the way to Denny/E Barbara Bailey Way and the southern edge of Capitol Hill Station and its Sound Transit security camera installations.

In the Central District, the Harrell administration and District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth pushed for the camera system to be centered around safety at Garfield High School with boundaries running from a block north of the school along E Cherry all the way to S Jackson. The western edge has been planned to include 20th Ave and the eastern edge would extend along 26th Ave.

The additions were planned to expand the SPD Real Time Crime Center surveillance camera system to include the Capitol Hill nightlife core around E Pike and Cal Anderson Park and a major swath of the Central District from E Cherry to Jackson police officials say is necessary to prevent gun violence.

The Capitol Hill system is estimated to cost around $400,000 to install and $35,000 a year to operate. The Central District installation has a budget of $425,000 and also an estimated $35,000 in “ongoing annual costs.”

Thursday, Wilson said SPD has yet to receive the ordered cameras from technology provider Axon but did not say if the

While not yet operational here, East Precinct officers make regular requests of RTCC analysts for information about suspicious vehicles or suspect photographs from the center’s databases. With the Real Time Crime Center’s current limited footprint, many of those East Precinct requests currently go unfilled.

SPD says the Center is now staffed 19 hours per day, seven days a week, combining “technology with real-time analysis to improve public safety outcomes.”

SPD’s CCTV map shows where the cameras are already in place and where they’re planned to be deployed

It is not clear what immediate impact the cessation of the Automatic License Plate Reader system will have. The system records license plates as SPD vehicles move through the city, flagging plates with issues and collecting information on where plates are in the city. Wilson says the pause will give Seattle time to ensure policies here line up with new state law intended to “limit the potential abuse of this technology.”

In her decision, the mayor said she is asking the community to look at the larger picture.

“There’s no doubt that these cameras make it easier to solve crimes, including serious ones like homicides,” Wilson’s statement reads. “But also: Cameras are not the one key to making our neighborhoods safe.”

“So I know that some people will be upset that I’m not turning off all the cameras immediately, and others will be upset that I’m not charging ahead with turning more on,” Wilson said Thursday. “To those people, I say, let’s work together on the bigger project of making SoDo and the Central District and Capitol Hill safer. And let’s work together on all the ways we can keep immigrants and other vulnerable communities safe. All the ways that aren’t as easy as flipping a switch.”

While officials including Kettle are calling for the audit to be completed before the World Cup, Wilson has not said what her timeline is for the audit and a final decision on the Capitol Hill and Central District cameras.

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