Mayor Said To “Expect” To “Hear More” On Surveillance Issue Last Week. Seattle Is Still Waiting

Mayor Katie Wilson’s office said the public could “expect” to “hear more” from her about the “potential for federal agents to abuse surveillance technology” in the first week of February in an email to The Burner. That week came and went and still, Wilson has not made a clear, public response to community demands to turn off or scale back the City’s surveillance system that advocates worry could help ICE or Border Patrol kidnap Seattleites amid the Trump administration's brutal crackdown on immigrants. And after the three newly approved zones recently appeared highlighted on the Seattle Police Department's (SPD) CCTV map, advocates are getting even more anxious for answers.

During her recent campaign, Wilson publicly opposed former Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposal to massively expand SPD's surveillance capabilities, aligning herself with civil liberties advocates and immigrant communities. At the time, Wilson did not explicitly promise to reverse the decision. But with the cameras not yet installed upon her swearing in, Wilson had a convenient opportunity to obstruct. 

The Burner asked Wilson if she would stop the expansion in December as her transition team started to spin up her policy agenda. Wilson reiterated her concerns and promised to consult stakeholders about the future of the program — a familiar, non-committal posture for a newly elected politician. 

But in January, Council Members Eddie Lin and Alexis Mercedes Rinck both publicly backed the public outcry to nix the expansion. In a statement to The Burner, Lin called on Wilson to “delay implementation” of the expansion so that the City could “revisit” the decision and possibly redirect funding to help immigrant communities, rather than potentially harm them.

Wilson faced this line of questioning again from the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog in late January. Wilson’s office said they were “currently reviewing options” when asked if they would “pause” the expansion. 

Most recently, Wilson rolled out a list of initial actions she would take to protect Seattle from an ICE crackdown like the one the world watched in horror in Minneapolis. Notably missing from that list: The long anticipated answer to the community's call to turn off the cameras or at least railroad the expansion. When The Burner asked if Wilson was any closer to a decision on the surveillance expansion, a spokesperson from her office said “The mayor shares community concerns about the potential for federal agents to abuse surveillance technology” and “You can expect to hear more from her next week on this topic.”

“Next week” would have been from Monday, February 2 to Friday, February 6. With no announcement from the Mayor’s office on the City’s blog or on social media. Her office did not respond when The Burner followed up on Friday afternoon. 

Obviously, this could be a routine delay. Hell, she may have a press release written and scheduled to hit inboxes Monday afternoon. But anti-surveillance advocates expressed concern to The Burner over the weekend after noticing that SPD's CCTV map now highlights the three new surveillance zones approved last fall. That map only included the two zones downtown and in the Chinatown International District (CID) when The Burner checked in mid January. The new zones still do not include clickable camera icons like the older zones, seeming to suggest that the cameras have not been installed.

SPD did not respond to The Burner's request for clarification about the status of the cameras.