(The Center Square) – Mayor Katie Wilson is allowing Seattle to begin installing additional surveillance cameras approved by her predecessor and the city council in 2025 after delaying it for several months.
Wilson gave the green light Tuesday at a press conference after an audit released Monday identified oversight gaps in Seattle’s Real-Time Crime Center. Interim Police Chief Andre Sayles said the RTCC and its closed-circuit television, or CCTV, cameras played a role in 17 homicide investigations last year.
Wilson, a self-described socialist, cited concerns that federal immigration authorities would demand the city’s CCTV footage as a reason for halting the expansion for the external review that went public this week.
When asked Tuesday whether the Seattle Police Department had received immigration-related demands to date, Sayles said not to his knowledge, which Wilson immediately confirmed to reporters.
“We have a policy in place so that if there were any request it would come to my desk,” Wilson said of immigration and reproductive health-related requests. “There has been no request that I’m aware of.”
Seattle already has more than 300 CCTV cameras, and the RTCC can also access about 100 other cameras at nine Seattle Police Department buildings and around 100 traffic camera feeds, according to the audit.
The network has been up and running for over a year and would’ve had more cameras had Wilson not paused an expansion approved by the last mayor, which the council then funded in the 2026 budget.
She attempted to strike a balance on Tuesday, acknowledging privacy and civil liberty concerns as well as residents and business owners who want to see more cameras installed and a reprieve from crime.
Wilson turned on additional cameras in the Stadium District for the World Cup over the summer before turning them off in July. On Tuesday, she said they were reactivating all of those cameras immediately.
In another press conference later on Tuesday, Councilmember Bob Kettle, the public safety chair, said turning the city’s cameras off isn’t as easy as flipping a switch; it requires additional time, labor and resources.
“These cameras are not designed to be turned on and off,” Kettle said. “We need to move forward.”
During Wilson’s press conference, The Center Square asked whether SPD had identified any instances where the lack of CCTV footage had impacted investigators’ ability to solve a crime or identify a suspect.
“I think the biggest thing is sometimes we get caught into the notion that we need cameras to solve crimes,” Sayles told The Center Square. When asked again, he said, “We haven’t looked into that.”
Kettle cited an August shooting outside a bar in Pioneer Square as one example when asked the same question later by The Center Square. Last month, police also sought footage of a woman being picked up by someone she thought might be impersonating an Uber driver, but the city’s “cameras in the area were not functional,” he said.
The Seattle Metro Chamber and Challenge Seattle released a poll in August with 75% of respondents supporting the cameras, while just 34% were confident that Wilson has an effective public safety plan.
“Residents and businesses have sent a clear message: they want our officers to have the tools to keep them safe. By moving forward with camera expansion, Mayor Wilson is taking a critical step toward a safer city,” former Gov. Chris Gregoire, CEO of Challenge Seattle, wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
The audit released Monday identified several oversight gaps in Seattle’s RTCC and CCTV program, but stopped short of suggesting an expansion, arguing that the decision rests with the city and its residents.
New York University School of Law’s Policing Project issued 19 recommendations, including policies that clearly outline when and how the cameras can be used, how long data should be retained and who the city can share it with, along with a dashboard and other things Wilson said she wants to implement.
Aside from the previously installed Stadium District cameras that Wilson says are already being turned on immediately, it could be several months before SPD has the cameras approved and funded in 2025.
Wilson said Seattle still needs to purchase and install cameras around Garfield High School and Capitol Hill. It could happen sometime in the next few months, but she didn’t give a clear date on Tuesday.
“So, I’m not here to say ‘the cameras are going to solve all our problems, they’re going to solve all our crimes, they’re going to prevent crime,"” Wilson said, arguing that CCTV cameras are “an important but very limited part” of Seattle’s overall public safety system.
“I agree that the evidence is mixed,” she added.