Civil rights groups warn of Seattle's new surveillance ordinances

Seattle city leaders eye surveillance cameras, nonprofits sound the alarm

Organizations are sharing concerns over ordinances that could add CCTV cameras to several high-crime areas in Seattle.

SEATTLE - Organizations are sharing concerns over ordinances that could add surveillance cameras to several high-crime areas in Seattle.

At Tuesday's Public Safety Committee meeting, council members approved bills for the technology pilot program that would not only add CCTV cameras to downtown Seattle, the Chinatown-International District and Aurora Avenue North, but give Seattle Police access to videos, potentially from private cameras, in these neighborhoods through real-time crime center software.

The ACLU of Washington responded to FOX 13 Seattle with this statement:

"We are deeply concerned about the City’s efforts to deploy CCTV cameras and real-time crime center (RTCC) software despite evidence that these technologies do not reduce violent crime and disproportionately harm communities of color. SPD’s use of RTCC software would make it possible for ICE and out-of-state agencies to access data to arrest immigrants and prosecute people coming to Seattle for reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare while bypassing state protections. The safeguards offered by SPD will not be sufficient in preventing these harms. Despite these serious risks, the proposals are being rushed without full consideration of the Community Surveillance Working Group’s and the public’s concerns. Seattle deserves public safety solutions that work, not empty promises at the cost of civil liberties and the well-being of the city’s most marginalized communities."

Though the Seattle Police Department says it will not cooperate with criminal or civil enforcement of laws related to immigration or health, there are still concerns of data sharing.

"We have seen in some cases that, yes, law enforcement has misused their access to this type of information and that has caused a lot of headache and trauma and stress for people who were participating in their First Amendment right to express how they feel about state violence," said Beryl Lipton, Senior Investigative Researcher with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Lipton tracks police and surveillance technologies, such as Real-Time Crime Center software for the digital rights and privacy nonprofit.

"This is really going to change the face of privacy on the streets of Seattle," said Lipton.

While SPD says face recognition technologies won't be used in this pilot program, Lipton says departments have found ways to bypass local laws addressing face recognition tech.

"We know that face recognition can be applied retroactively to video, to photos, to pictures you didn't even know that you were in," said Lipton. "Unfortunately, we've seen multiple police departments get around locally mandated ordinances that ban face recognition or limit police use of face recognition by simply asking one of their neighboring police departments to run the search for them."

Lipton gives credit to SPD for saying they'll audit access to the technologies in this pilot program, but she urges residents in Seattle and the Seattle City Council to stay vigilant on how the effectiveness of this program is measured.

"It's going to be important for the community to be asking questions and ensuring there's actually due diligence being done around the audit mechanisms that have been proposed," said Lipton.