Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson says the FBI and Seattle Police Department have convinced her of “general but credible threats” that warrant a heightened level of security and the activation of SPD’s Real Time Crime Center surveillance cameras for Seattle’s World Cup matches starting next week.
A planned expansion to Capitol Hill and Central District streets remains on hold.
“Earlier this week, I received an updated briefing from the Seattle Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation on the current global and local threat environment,” Wilson said in a statement. “The breadth and depth of intelligence gathering that informed the briefing identified general but credible threats to safety and security during the games.”
“While not unexpected given an event of this magnitude, this information has persuaded our law enforcement, emergency management, and FIFA security partners that we should be operating at a heightened risk level,” the mayor said. “Given this information, the Stadium District cameras will be activated during the FIFA World Cup tournament.”
CHS reported here in March as Wilson followed up on campaign promises and stopped an expansion of the city’s police camera system to the stadium district, Capitol Hill’s nightlife areas, and 23rd Ave in the Central District citing concerns about how law enforcement and federal authorities might access the technology and data. Wilson said the pause would be part of “a privacy and data governance audit” to help make sure the system had adequate safeguards to justify its use by police.
“While I have decided to have the cameras ready to help us quickly establish situational awareness near the stadiums if needed, we will continue honing our policies and protections to safeguard the data these videos capture,” Wilson said in the statement announcing the activation of the stadium-area cameras for the games.
CHS reported here on the city’s public safety preparations in advance of the games including some $32 million in World Cup funding.
Officials have been predicting about 750,000 to attend the Seattle matches, a major upward revision from the initial estimates used during the early planning and bidding phases as leaders have insisted on greater spending around the tournament. The transformed Lumen Field — known as Seattle Stadium during the World Cup due to FIFA licensing restrictions — has a total capacity that would pace the possible full attendance for the six matches at just over 410,000 but the official estimates also include the thousands who are expected to gather here for the festivities and match watching events across the city.
Hotel bookings have reportedly lagged and officials expect fewer international attendees due to concerns about the increase in aggressive federal policies and travel bans.
The first match in Seattle kicks off June 15 at noon with Group G’s Belgium vs. Egypt.
Subscribe to CHS to help hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support
