SEATTLE — Mayor Katie Wilson says Seattle will turn police cameras near the city’s stadiums back on and resume expanding its Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) camera network into SODO, Capitol Hill, and the Central District after completing an audit of the program.
The expansion had previously been approved by the Seattle City Council.
Wilson said the city will spend the next several months working through the audit’s recommendations, including policies governing how long the Seattle Police Department can retain video and who can access it.
The mayor also said she will work with SPD to ensure existing safeguards adequately protect the data, particularly from access by federal agencies.
“There is not in my mind or based on this audit really big gaps that like tell us we are worried that this data could be misused in the next five months or that this data could fall into the hands of federal agencies,” Wilson said.
Interim Seattle Police Chief Andre Sayles defended the technology as one of several tools available to investigators.
“I think it’s a tool with everything that we have,” Sayles said. “And also understanding that we have to investigate crimes the way we started policing and investigate those crimes.”
Sayles said the Real Time Crime Center has aided investigators in hundreds of cases since SPD began using it last year, including helping police solve 17 homicides.
Critics, however, remain concerned about who ultimately controls footage collected through Seattle’s camera network and whether outside agencies, including the federal government, could gain access to it.
Noah Williams, a cloud operations engineer, said he does not believe cities using such systems have as much control over the information as they believe.
“I don’t believe that any of the municipalities, Seattle or otherwise that has implemented this system, has the level of control that they think they do,” Williams said. “This isn’t a specific failure to our city, it’s the model of outsourcing control over a camera system.”
Members of the Seattle City Council also differed on whether the city should move ahead with expansion while addressing issues raised by the audit.
Councilmember Bob Kettle said the city can make changes to the program while continuing to use the technology.
“We take those things and make those tweaks and make it better and we keep it in sync with Seattle values,” Kettle said. “Finding that nice balance between public safety on one hand and on the other hand privacy and civil liberties.”
Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck said she welcomed the mayor’s commitment to implementing the audit recommendations but would prefer the city address its existing issues before expanding the system.
“Encouraged to hear that the mayor is dedicating resources for implementing the recommendations, but I think the core difference here is I would prefer that we’d address these in-house issues before seeking to expand this system,” Rinck said.
Wilson said the city plans to establish additional policies and safeguards over the coming months as the camera program moves forward.
©2026 Cox Media Group
