The recent Seattle Times op-ed, “Mayor Wilson should halt use, expansion of CCTV in Seattle” (Feb. 9), calling on Mayor Katie Wilson to deactivate and defund Seattle’s public safety cameras, makes about as much sense as calls to defund the police did six years ago (remember how that turned out?).
Seattle’s public safety cameras and new Real Time Crime Center are essential, modern-day tools to solve crimes and ensure safety in big cities (especially in a city that has lost 700 police officers since 2019 and is welcoming the world here in just a few months). Removing the system and canceling the expansion would make Seattle residents, visitors and small businesses less safe, not more.
In the period since the cameras were first installed, they have already proven their effectiveness in helping police apprehend suspects and increase safety. Following the installation in May of last year, the system was utilized in 600 separate incidents in just the first 60 days. Anyone can go to the Seattle police blotter (spdblotter.seattle.gov) and see for themselves the recent incidents where cameras have proved to be an essential tool in addressing crime. Consider a few examples:
- RTCC analysts used live camera feeds to monitor a violent, unprovoked assault in progress near Third Avenue and Pine Street. The cameras enabled police to identify the suspect, track his movements and arrest him immediately after the attack.
- Following a shooting incident near Aurora Avenue North, RTCC analysts used CCTV footage to track the suspect’s escape route. Analysts provided live updates, including a photo of the suspect, directly to officers in the field, leading to a swift apprehension.
- Officers used the RTCC to track a vehicle identified in a sexual assault report. By confirming the vehicle’s location with camera surveillance, officers conducted a targeted traffic stop and caught the suspect in the same neighborhood.
The RTCC supported investigations into 17 homicides in 2025, leading to 10 arrests. The technology helped achieve an 86% homicide clearance rate in 2025, significantly higher than the 57% rate in 2024.
The city’s Office of Inspector General has hired independent academic experts to evaluate the RTCC and the police department’s use of the RTCC and CCTV cameras. The evaluation team is led by principal investigator Anthony Braga and co-principal investigator Lisa Barao at the University of Pennsylvania’s Crime and Justice Policy Lab.
One of the central arguments of the author and the two dozen people who recently took over a City Council meeting with shouts and chants is that the camera system could be taken over by federal authorities to support immigration enforcement. This is nothing more than the same political performance art that fueled the defund-police movement. This argument ignores the extensive safeguards put in place by city leaders (including the extensive 2018 City Surveillance Ordinance) and the fact that public camera systems exist on buses, trains, at transit stations, in our airport, at City Hall, at stadiums and at major intersections, among thousands of other public spaces. The claim is intellectually inconsistent at best, and intellectually dishonest at worst.
We shouldn’t harm Seattle in the name of “standing up” to any president. And make no mistake — removing the system would lead to more harm for Seattle communities, residents, small businesses and police, who would be without a proven and effective tool that provides timely and accurate information when responding to violent crimes.
Crime is down in Seattle because rational decision-making when it comes to public safety is up. Mayor Wilson should continue that course and expand the system that is helping police solve crimes and making our communities safer.
