Through the Static

By Hannah Saunders

On April 3, several groups wrote a letter to Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, urging her to reactivate the CCTV cameras in the Stadium District and expand surveillance in the city as a whole. The letter comes as a response to several recent incidents of gun violence, including the July 26 Seattle Center shooting that reached international headlines.

“We respectfully urge you to reactivate the 22 CCTV cameras in the Stadium District and Pioneer Square that were connected to the Seattle Police Department’s Real-Time Crime Center, while the City’s audit is underway. This includes safeguards mandated by the City when the policy was first adopted,” the group wrote. “In addition, we urge further investment in CCTV cameras in areas of the city that regularly host large-scale events, such as Seattle Center. This nexus was not evaluated in past efforts.”

Those who signed-on include SeaFair, Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle Storm, Seattle Convention Center, Visit Seattle, Space Needle, Capitol Hill Block Party, Seattle Sports Commission, Washington State Ballpark Public Facilities District, and Chihuly Garden and Glass. The group said they invest in protective measures, like safety plans and procedures, private security, Seattle Police partnerships, and the “use of private cameras to prevent crime, collect evidence of serious criminal activity, and hold offenders accountable.”

“However, last week’s violent crimes should serve as a stark reminder that any large-scale event is vulnerable to public safety threats that may endanger human lives. Seattle police officers need every tool at their disposal to keep these events and their attendees safe,” according to the letter.

CCTV cameras in the Stadium District that were installed ahead of the FIFA World Cup have been turned off since July 7, and will remain so until an audit on their effectiveness is delivered, which is expected this fall. Much concern with CCTV cameras in the city relates to mass surveillance and partnerships, as footage that is flagged as being connected to an incident is stored on an Axon server, evidence.com. Axon collaborates with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by providing storage systems, body-worn video cameras, AI software, and more.

Footage from the city’s CCTV cameras is stored at the Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC), which is an office located in the Seattle Police Department headquarters. Mayor Wilson has previously said that while footage is continuously captured, it’s not regularly monitored, but some have found it astounding that marginalized community members should simply trust SPD officers to behave in good faith, particularly considering their discriminatory and violent policing.

The City has partnered with NYU’s Policing Project to create a data governance and privacy audit to evaluate if the CCTV cameras harm civil rights and civil liberties, although Mayor Wilson has previously stated that this technology is “not the primary threat to immigrants, trans people, or people seeking reproductive health care in our country right now.”

Gun violence isn’t new to Seattle, but news of the Seattle Center shooting jumped across the globe due to the location of the shooting and the amount of people who were present and impacted by it while at the family-friendly, Bite of Seattle event. Different community groups, including Our Seattle, have called on Mayor Wilson to invest in violence interruption programs and evidence-based violence prevention approaches, including funding Community Passageways, which is currently working with survivors and families impacted by the July 26 shooting.

“Seattle Center is extensively surveilled. Surveillance did not prevent these deaths. Surveillance did not stop the shooting on Aurora in North Seattle last Thursday nor the recent shooting on Capitol Hill. Cameras don’t stop bullets. Seattle Center is one of the most policed areas outside of city hotspots. Policing did not prevent these deaths,” Our Seattle said.

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