By Hannah Saunders
Five months into 2026, and Mayor Katie Wilson and the Seattle City Council have repeatedly failed to listen to and take action on concerns community members continue to bring to their attention, particularly when it comes to mass surveillance. Mayor Wilson’s era thus far has primarily been made up of photo opportunities, publicity stunts, and announcements of harmful technological expansion, while those who are vulnerable are regularly kidnapped and locked in the local immigrant detention camp, including a seven-month-old baby who is a U.S. citizen, just last week. The trajectory of this city’s leadership has shown they are and will likely proceed with serving the interests of the rich and powerful, feeding into the technofascist state.
This week, Wilson sneakily announced an AI expansion under Seattle’s Artificial Intelligence Vision, posting it under the Office of the Mayor’s Blog while neglecting to better inform the public via her social media accounts, which act as modern day town halls. Additionally, there is no option for constituents to subscribe to her blog. City employees can now use Microsoft Copilot chat, but the cloud server it uses to store data, Microsoft Azure, is the same one Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) use for carrying out its genocide against Palestinians.
“I understand that some people may wonder why the City would allow any AI use at all. I don’t believe that simply burying our heads in the sand will prevent these tools from being used, nor will it allow us to continue to be world-class innovators in both technology and public policy,” Mayor Wilson said. “And it will also not help us to ensure compliance with critical privacy, transparency, and records protections.”
Mayor Wilson said she is eager to utilize AI to improve people’s quality of life, but at what cost? Tech companies have slashed over 14,000 jobs this year due to AI, and Washington’s unemployment rate has risen for its fourth consecutive month due to the harsh economy. Furthermore, data centers train, store, and operate AI and require mass amounts of water, and Washington is heading into its fourth consecutive drought season.
As Seattle’s elected officials prioritize convenience over people’s livelihoods, Microsoft Azure is a proven mass surveillance tool which has been used by the IOF to store, translate, transcribe, and search through the text messages of Palestinians. For years, Seattle City Light has used Azure’s LoadSEER software for data-driven decision making and forecasting.
“Turn off the cameras”
The first three months for a newly elected mayor include a transition period and photo opportunities, like ribbon-cutting ceremonies, which Mayor Wilson has taken advantage of. But now, some of her voters are increasingly outraged by her decision-making skills that contrast what she campaigned on. Her grassroots base has pushed back against her decision to expand CCTV surveillance to help police solve crimes.
Footage is stored at SPD’s Real Time Crime Center and is allegedly erased after five days. But if the footage is connected to an incident, it’s uploaded and retained on Axon’s servers at evidence.com. Axon is a long-time DHS partner that provides body-worn video cameras, AI software, and storage systems, including evidence.com.
Mayor Wilson has seemingly earned her nickname, “Shady Katie,” who said over 20 CCTV cameras will be installed in the Stadium District ahead of the World Cup, which kicks off in Seattle on June 15. She claimed these cameras will be turned off unless there’s a “credible threat,” but her and SPD have yet to define what that means or issue a timeline for installation to the public.
Due to the frustrations of constituents, Mayor Wilson partook in a disastrous town hall on March 27, highlighting the pro-cop argument for surveillance cameras, like how they can contribute to solving a small number of crimes and that evaluations on effectiveness are currently underway. But leading up to the event, her social media team falsely advertised the start time, claiming it began at 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m., which would have led to some missing the town hall entirely. The post was up for several days before a correction was issued in the comment section, which was not visible unless users opened the comment section. The account eventually posted a new graphic advertising the correct time.
“It felt like talking to a Kangaroo Court lawyer, and not a Mayor representing the people who voted for her,” one town hall attendee told TtS.
The Transit Riders Union (TRU), founded by Mayor Wilson, issued a demand letter on March 28 for her to turn off surveillance cameras and invest in community-based public safety programs. TRU stated that Seattle taxpayers are spending upwards of $8.7M for surveillance technologies.
“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.
During another surveillance-focused town hall with Our Seattle on April 7, the mayor regurgitated the same pro-cop talking points, as speakers were emphasizing issues like hackers obtaining data and creating direct resources for victims of police violence. And to mark her 100th day in office, voters held a “Community Not Cameras” rally at Seattle City Hall Plaza.
Police brutality
After 13 years, SPD exited the federal consent decree last year, which involved federal oversight of the department for the excessive use of force and racist policing. Not long after, officers gunned down 29-year-old Christian Hadley Nelson in the streets of South Seattle, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, and the violence has only continued.
There was a speaking event on April 19 featuring former IOF soldier and Miss Israel 2021, Noa Cochva, at the Seattle Town Hall hosted by StandWithUs Northwest, a chapter of Zionist org StandWithUs. SPD made three violent arrests that day, including spraying pepper powder about one foot away from a person’s face then tackling them. Three officers pinned the protester down, with one officer placing their knee on the back of the person’s neck and upper back.
How did the arrests start? Protesters made a human chain outside the entrance steps to prevent attendees from getting into the venue. One protester was wearing a plastic bag over their head that had eye slits, and an attendee grabbed it. The protester swung a punch in self-defense, and SPD bulldozed in. SPD, Mayor Wilson, and members of the council have not issued any statements regarding the IOF event and brutal arrests.
Mayor Wilson has also been dragging her feet to meet with victims and survivors of police brutality, taking months to schedule a meeting with Justice for Herbert, then leaving the group in the dark about next steps. Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Joy Hollingsworth ghosted the same people, leading to another demand letter.
Lights, camera, inaction
One photo opp that struck a nerve throughout Seattle was on February 26, when the mayor posed with a Seattle Parks Department employee while he was installing non-enforceable anti-ICE signs, which read: “Pursuant to City of Seattle policy, this property shall not be used for civil immigration enforcement staging, operations, or processing.”
Immigrants argued that this is more of the same virtue signaling by an elected official, and that funds used to create and install those signs could have been used in direct aid efforts to those actively being impacted by ICE’s terrors. Some immigrants in our city are scared to leave their homes or pick-up their children from school and are in urgent need of funding and renter eviction moratoriums, which with a mayor focused on making Seattle a city for all and interest in addressing the homelessness crisis, would ideally be something she’d act on.
Taxpayer dollars have also been used to advertise a new haircut and Wilson’s stylist on her social media accounts— an unethical use of influence— during a time when the mayor flat-out refused to hold conversations with people and groups impacted by police violence, including Justice for Herbert.
That day, TtS broke news that Mayor Wilson’s government account had been limiting comments, with constituents reporting that their comments had allegedly been deleted, likely a First Amendment violation, but Mayor Wilson’s office said those claims were false.
Social media users have also become increasingly vocal about Mayor Wilson using her daughter as a prop at events, with her Instagram account posting pictures of the child once to twice per week on average, giving the young one no option to consent or to privacy, and sometimes looking frustrated.
So, what have they accomplished?
As the mayor and council ignore the concerns of community members who are most at risk of DHS kidnapping them, or being surveilled and tracked on a massive scale, they have made some basic accomplishments that are expected of elected officials.
One issue Wilson campaigned on where she’s made strides is with the Seattle Preschool Program, which will now be yearlong. Tuition is free for most Seattle families, and all three-and four-year-olds in the city are eligible, including Mayor Wilson’s child. Beginning this fall, every student K-12 will be provided free meals, and the city will incorporate free mental health care support and more school-based health centers. In a social media announcement about these positive improvements, Mayor Wilson made a point of noting that her own daughter will be enrolled in the preschool program, showing how this decision had a self-serving factor.
Wilson also recently announced how the city has secured a plot in South Park for a tiny house village with 90 units with the goal of expanding shelter, as the issue worsens across the city due to housing affordability and a harsh economy. Wilson also previously spoke about launching 1,000 new shelter and emergency housing units that include micro shelters, tiny house villages, and multi-family buildings.
Last month, Wilson also said she was implementing the Denny Way Bus Reliability Project to improve travel time for the infamous Route 8, which transports about 7,000 people daily. New bus lanes are being installed this month, and plans for this August include limiting turns at certain locations, shifting lanes, and improving pedestrian safety.
Meanwhile, the council is planning to implement a one year moratorium on new data centers in Seattle, but people don’t want data centers at all. The city’s expansion in AI will undoubtedly lead to more data centers in the city. The moratorium has yet to be drafted.
Both the Seattle City Council and Wilson are slowly accomplishing the bare minimum of what is expected of them. A growing number of people have been attending Seattle City Council meetings to speak on the IOF event, CCTV camera expansion, needing resources for victims, and AI. Each week, the council patiently listens to constituents, then stuffs these comments in a drawer that they don’t bother to open once shut.
The capitalist and technofascist regime is only expanding, and Wilson and the council are feeding into it by disregarding constituent concerns that are regularly brought forth and by refusing to take meaningful action.
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