SEATTLE, Wash. — A new independent audit of Seattle’s Real-Time Crime Center found the city has safeguards governing its growing police surveillance network, but identified gaps involving privacy, data retention, and oversight. The audit also calls for additional protections.
The 77-page audit by the Policing Project at New York University School of Law comes after months of debate over Seattle’s network of police cameras and how the technology should be used. The report makes 19 recommendations for the Seattle Police Department and city officials.
Those recommendations include generally requiring a warrant before police use multiple cameras to track a person’s movements outside certain active incidents, strengthening auditing and data-retention requirements, and providing greater transparency surrounding private cameras and surveillance features.
The report does not recommend that Seattle eliminate its Real-Time Crime Center, nor does it conclude whether the center should continue operating or expand.
Instead, the audit focuses on civil rights, civil liberties, and governance issues associated with the technology and recommends additional safeguards, if Seattle continues using it.
Report recommends limits on tracking people across cameras
One of the audit’s most significant recommendations concerns the ability of investigators to use multiple cameras to follow a person’s movements.
The Policing Project recommends that warrantless tracking, using multiple camera clusters, generally be limited to active incidents, in which police have probable cause and immediate action is necessary. Outside of those circumstances, the report recommends police obtain a warrant supported by probable cause.
The recommendation would not mean police need a warrant every time they use a camera during an investigation. The report specifically distinguishes tracking a person’s movements across multiple areas from checking cameras near a crime scene to look for a suspect.
Audit identifies gaps in data retention and oversight
The report also found that some of the safeguards currently used by SPD are not formally required by policy.
For example, SPD currently retains raw video from its own CCTV cameras for five days, while its policy permits footage to be kept for as long as 30 days. The audit recommends formally adopting the five-day limit.
The report also found that video or images moved into Evidence.com as evidence are currently retained indefinitely. Auditors recommend Seattle, instead, establish retention periods based on the status and outcome of individual cases.
Auditors also raised concerns about how camera use can be reviewed after the fact.
Axon’s Fusus system logs user activity, according to the report, but does not require an analyst to enter a case number or justification every time a camera is viewed. The report says that makes it difficult for an auditor relying on system logs to determine whether individual camera access was appropriate.
It also says the system does not currently log use of its AI-powered object-detection feature.
Cliff Cawthon with the Communities Not Cameras Coalition said the findings reinforced concerns his organization has raised about safeguards surrounding Seattle’s surveillance technology.
“They saw the very same thing we saw,” Cawthon said. “There is a porous, Swiss cheese system that has few technical safeguards to keep our data safe.”
Debate continues over public safety and privacy
The audit comes amid a broader debate over whether Seattle’s surveillance cameras provide enough public-safety benefits to outweigh concerns about privacy.
Microsoft President Brad Smith argued in July that turning off cameras in the Stadium District could make the public less safe.
“And every day those cameras in the Stadium District are turned off is a day when our own citizens are left less safe than they should be,” Smith said.
Opponents have raised concerns about where the cameras are located, what they can capture, and who can access the resulting footage.
“There are a number of cameras that are pointed directly into people’s homes,” Cawthon said.
The audit found the Real-Time Crime Center had access to 303 SPD CCTV cameras at 61 sites at the time of its review, along with approximately 100 traffic cameras, cameras at SPD facilities, and 23 privately owned cameras at three businesses connected directly to the system.
SPD also maintained a registry containing 893 private cameras at 159 locations, though those cameras were not connected for live viewing.
The report notes the network has the potential to grow. SPD had purchased approximately 100 additional devices capable of connecting private businesses’ camera systems, but auditors said plans for distributing those devices had not yet been determined. The report recommends greater transparency about how private cameras are added to the network.
Cawthon called on Mayor Katie Wilson to take the audit’s recommendations into account.
“That says something. So, I would for sure ask Mayor Wilson to respect the report,” Cawthon said.
Wilson is expected to address the audit at an 11 a.m. press conference Tuesday alongside interim Seattle Police Chief Andre Sayles.
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