Researchers auditing Seattle’s Real Time Crime Center outlined 19 recommendations that would place stronger guardrails around police surveillance in the city, including requiring officers to get a warrant before tracking someone, and launching a public dashboard showing when and how the surveillance program is used.
The audit by New York University’s Policing Project stems from Mayor Katie Wilson’s decision in May to pause a planned expansion of the crime center, amid fears over privacy and civil rights concerns. Wilson said she would wait to review the audit before deciding whether to turn on additional surveillance cameras the Police Department had installed in the city’s Stadium District, Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods.
The halt was to give researchers time to examine whether the city’s and Police Department’s current policies and practices addressed the potential risks posed by the program, Wilson said during a May 19 news conference.
Wilson’s office announced she and interim police Chief Andre Sayles would host a news conference about the report on Tuesday morning at City Hall. Police department spokesperson Sgt. Patrick Michaud said the agency would respond to questions about the audit during Tuesday’s conference.
The Real Time Crime Center already has some safeguards. In October 2024, the City Council approved Police Department policy that prohibits the center from using facial recognition technology and bars staffers from continuously monitoring camera feeds.
Researchers said city and Police Department policy left important gaps, including rules that are unclear or difficult to enforce, or informal practices that have never been turned into written policy, according to the report. For example, police typically delete surveillance camera footage within 5 days, unless it’s being used in an investigation, but that isn’t written policy. (The policy permits the department to retain the video for up to 30 days.)
While the mayor’s office requested the audit — and paid researchers $223,000 for their work — the city is not required to implement any of the recommendations. But Katie Kinsey, the Policing Project’s chief of staff, said people from both groups “seem really determined to make the changes.”
“We can’t bind the city in any kind of way. I wish we had that kind of power in our line of work,” Kinsey said. “But I just feel like it’s been a really productive collaboration.”
The crime center pilot program launched last year with police surveillance cameras installed in downtown Seattle, the Chinatown International District and Aurora Avenue North. The program has since expanded to incorporate more surveillance camera feeds across the city, including some that are privately owned.
The Policing Project’s 77-page audit suggested changing certain policies and implementing new ones to help balance public safety efforts while addressing potential risks to people’s privacy and civil liberties.
Max Isaacs, Policing Project’s technology law and policy director, said its most important recommendation was to require Seattle police to obtain a warrant from a judge any time they want to use the crime center to track someone. This requirement wouldn’t apply when police are searching for a suspect or responding during an emergency, he said.
The “common sense guardrail” would “go a long way to protect individual privacy,” Isaacs said.
Clare Garvie, the group’s deputy director of technology law and policy, said another key recommendation was for Seattle police to turn informal practices — including some relating to data retention limits and private camera usage — into written policies.
That change would improve transparency and accountability and ensure the “safeguards don’t turn off tomorrow (and) that they continue to endure,” Garvie said.
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