Tag Archives: real time crime center

Audits find Seattle Police tapping SDOT feeds sent by mistake — and private cameras on Capitol Hill

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A security camera above 12th Ave

Two newly released reports reveal that Seattle’s expanding camera network has outpaced city safeguards, sweeping up sensitive traffic feeds by mistake and pulling in private security cameras — including feeds on Capitol Hill — without clear rules.

Both audits were conducted under the Seattle Municipal Code which requires independent oversight offices to annually examine the Seattle Police Department and city’s approved surveillance tools for privacy risks, civil liberties impacts, and legal compliance.

The review by the Office of Inspector General warned that police and city leaders failed to set basic standards before connecting private business and property feeds into the Seattle Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center. Unlike city cameras, which use digital masking to black out apartment and hotel windows, the department cannot easily control third-party devices. If a business owner angles a camera into non-public spaces or archives video for months, police have no formal process to catch or correct the issue.

While the pilot has launched in downtown, Aurora, and the International District, investigators say the SPD plan to link private feeds citywide has been moving forward without adequate safeguards and has already integrated two private camera locations in Capitol Hill within SPD’s East Precinct without specific geographic limits. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Block Party joins call for mayor to expand Seattle Police camera system

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The company behind this weekend’s Capitol Hill Block Party has joined a group of the city’s largest event producers calling on Mayor Katie Wilson to reactivate the Seattle Police Department’s surveillance cameras near the city’s stadiums and quickly expand the Real Time Crime Center system.

CHBP producers Daydream State signed onto the letter from the coalition formed in the wake of last month’s deadly shootout at the Bite of Seattle. The Block Party’s production company includes ownership from Pike/Pine institutions including the Neumos and Barboza family, Lost Lake Cafe, the Comet, and Big Mario’s. Continue reading →

Groups call on Seattle mayor to choose ‘Community Not Cameras’ in Real Time Crime Center expansion to Capitol Hill and the Central District

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A coalition of social justice and labor groups has formed to call on Mayor Katie Wilson to permanently cancel expansion plans for the Seattle Police Department’s camera surveillance system to Capitol Hill and the Central District.

The group is calling for the entire Real Time Crime Center’s network of city cameras to be turned off. Community Not Cameras is planning a Friday rally outside Seattle City Hall.

“This will be Mayor Katie B. Wilson’s 100th day in office, and we are hosting this rally and press conference to collectively call her to immediately stop the surveillance cameras expansion and to turn off all cameras asap,” the group says in its announcement of the noontime rally. “Power is only as good as its accountability.”

Wilson is under pressure from supporters who say she is not living up to promises made last year as she campaigned to oust incumbent Bruce Harrell. Continue reading →

With ICE concerns swirling in Seattle, mayor ‘reviewing options’ for pause of Real Time Crime Center expansion to Capitol Hill and the Central District

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Tuesday, multiple South Seattle public schools were under “shelter in place” security protocols after unconfirmed reports immigration agents were in the area to target families near the campuses.

As the Trump administration’s ICE battles are felt in Seattle, worries about how the city’s police — and their technology — respond to federal agents is a top concern at City Hall. A planned expansion of the city’s Real Time Crime Center camera system to include parts of Capitol Hill and the Central District is a key area of worry.

Despite the street disorder and public safety issues the new cameras are hoped to address, calls to put the expansion on hold have the mayor’s ear.

Mayor Katie Wilson shares the concerns and is “currently reviewing options,” the mayor’s office told CHS late Tuesday about a pause.

Wilson says she is sorting out what is possible including a proposal from Seattle City Councilmember Eddie Lin to stop the approved and funded expansion and redirect funding to help immigrant communities targeted in the Department of Homeland Security crackdown.

District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth representing Capitol Hill and the Central District where the new cameras will be located, has supported the Real Time Crime Center growth and joined Mayor Bruce Harrell last year in his push to include the area around the Central District’s Garfield High School in the expansion.

Hollingsworth said Tuesday she is “open to a conversation” about a pause but continues to support the community public safety effort that she says buoyed to Garfield area camera plan in the first place. Continue reading →