Through the Static

By Hannah Saunders

The Transit Riders Union (TRU), a grassroots organization dedicated to improving public transit in the region, is demanding that Mayor Katie Wilson, its founder and former general secretary, turn off surveillance cameras and invest in community-based public safety programs. TRU dropped a demand letter on March 28, the day after Mayor Wilson’s disastrous Town Hall on surveillance and safety where many constituents left feeling upset, which came after she announced an expansion in surveillance.

During a March 19 press briefing, Mayor Wilson said she is pausing the CCTV Pilot Program, but will install about 20 additional cameras in the Stadium District ahead of the World Cup. Surveillance cameras along 3rd Avenue, parts of Chinatown International District, and the North Aurora corridor will remain active, as well as the ones currently in the Stadium District, the Central District near Garfield High School, and the Capitol Hill nightlife district. 

“We are calling on Mayor Wilson and City Council to take immediate action by taking down the surveillance infrastructure that is harming our communities and that risks the safety of immigrant communities, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, and everyone living in or visiting Seattle,” the letter states. 

Seattle taxpayers are spending upwards of $8.7 million for surveillance technologies, according to TRU, which said that money could be used to expand violence prevention strategies. The group acknowledged the murders of two teenages in Rainier Beach in January, and that the city’s elected officials are failing residents. 

“We do not need another panel, review, or assessment! What Seattle needs urgently is for the City to fund and implement successful community-led violence prevention and scale up these interventions to meet the needs of its residents,” the demand letter stated. 

TRU recommends the city invest in community-based organizations, like Community Passageways, Rainier Beach Action Coalition, Creative Justice, Rainier Ave Youth Safety, and Choose 180, which have all been conducting violence-prevention work yet have unsustainable funding streams to expand its work to schools throughout Seattle. TRU stated that the City Council and former Mayor raided the Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise Levy, refunnelling $43 million into the general fund, among others, to balance the budget “on the backs of Seattle’s youth.” 

“The city could scale effective community-led solutions such as the Regional Peacekeepers Collective coordinated by the Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention and the Rainier Beach Action Coalition and their Restorative Resolutions Project, which have already reduced violence in the Rainier Beach neighborhood by 33%,” according to TRU’s letter. 

The letter cited the CDC’s 2025 Community Violence Prevention Resource for Action, which highlights street outreach, job training and employment programs, mentoring and afterschool programs, among others, as ways to reduce community violence. 

“We call on Mayor Wilson and the City Council to act urgently to scale up investments that actually decrease violence to prevent any further loss of life. Defund the harmful surveillance cameras that make communities less safe and use our resources to fund these evidence-based violence prevention programs; the well-being of our city’s youth demands it,” the letter states. 

Read the full letter here. 

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