Mayor Katie Wilson Still Won't Commit To Blocking Surveillance Expansion, "Moved" By Arguments Tech Helps Solve Crime

Mayor Katie Wilson once again failed to commit to blocking a major expansion to the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) surveillance capabilities that the City approved last fall, but has yet to implement. Wilson sided with advocates for immigrants rights, reproductive justice, and civil liberties, opposing the expansion the former Mayor championed and the City Council passed during her campaign. But now, while she still holds concerns about privacy for vulnerable populations, Wilson said she’s “moved” by arguments that surveillance will help solve crime, echoing the position long held by her cop-tech-loving predecessor and the council’s moderate bloc. At minimum, this blurs the distinction between Wilson and the administration voters thought they were replacing.

Wilson has punted the decision to block the surveillance expansion in the past, but on Tuesday afternoon, at her first state of the City address, the Mayor moderated on her largest stage yet. 

She maintained that she still holds the concerns she expressed during the campaign about how the federal government may abuse surveillance technology to target vulnerable communities — think immigrants, out-of-state abortion seekers, trans refugees, protesters, and anyone else who may find themselves in the cross-hairs of this fascist administration. But Wilson said she has been “moved” by what she’s heard from communities impacted by gun violence. She argued surveillance cameras have been a “useful tool” in solving crimes, reducing profiling, and protecting witnesses. 

“These are both valid points of view that come from wanting the same thing, to be able to enjoy our neighborhoods and live our lives knowing that we will come home safe,” Wilson said. 

This marks a clear shift. Wilson gave no credence to these common, pro-surveillance arguments when she publicly opposed the City Council’s approval of $1 million worth of new cameras in Capitol Hill, the Central District, and near the stadium last September. At the time, Wilson wrote, “Turning on more cameras won’t magically make our neighborhoods safer. But it will certainly make our neighbors more vulnerable.”

On top of that apparent moderation, Wilson did not commit to giving the public an answer any time soon.

“I know this is a contentious issue, and I want to get it right and not rush to a particular deadline, so my team and I will continue to dig in, meet with people who have different opinions, and try to find the best way forward,” Wilson said. “My overriding goal is that whoever you are and wherever you come from, if Seattle is your home, then this is your city, and there is a place for you here.”

While this will disappoint the hours worth of public commenters who opposed the surveillance expansion, Wilson’s comments likely won’t surprise anyone who has been following closely. 

Soon after Wilson’s victory last November, The Burner caught her seemingly weasling out of a once strong anti-surveillance position. 

“I'm aware of the decisions by Olympia, Redmond, and other cities to turn off their surveillance cameras, and I'm going to work with immigrant rights groups and civil rights advocates to evaluate whether Seattle should also scale back or disable the surveillance expansion that was authorized by the outgoing mayor and council,” Wilson said in a statement to The Burner in December “I'm certainly not going to allow any further expansion of surveillance without an actual independent review of their effectiveness and their impact.”

Advocates also got antsy when Wilson failed to include their demand to turn surveillance cameras off in her list of actions to combat ICE, which she rolled out late last month. At the time, her office told The Burner the public could “expect to hear more from her next week” on the topic of surveillance. That update never came. 

Anti-surveillance advocates already anticipated Wilson’s shift on the issue, particularly after two teenagers were shot and killed in Rainier Beach last month. In a recent Instagram post, activists from Stop Surveillance City argued that “cameras do not stop bullets.” Instead, they encouraged the Mayor and the City Council to invest in gun violence prevention programing rather than tech that may help track down shooters retroactively. They even suggested the City defund surveillance technology to pay for it.