Seattle will expand police surveillance cameras to 3 neighborhoods

Catalina Gaitán, The Seattle Times on Nov 10, 2026

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SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced at a Tuesday news conference that the city will keep police surveillance cameras and move forward with expanding the program, with some extra safeguards.

She announced she has authorized the Seattle Police Department to install and turn on cameras in the stadium district, Central District and Capitol Hill, as approved by City Council.

The mayor announced her decision a day after researchers at New York University’s Policing Project released an audit of the city’s Real Time Crime Center. Researchers outlined 19 recommendations to address “important gaps” they found in city and Police Department policy, including rules that are unclear or difficult to enforce, or informal practices that have never been turned into written policy.

The mayor’s decision marks a crucial moment for the crime center, a system of live surveillance camera feeds, 911 dispatch data and officer locations that police use when responding to incidents or investigating crimes after they’ve happened.

The center launched last year as a pilot program with surveillance cameras in three areas, and has since grown to include hundreds of cameras across the city, including some that are privately owned.

The future of the program has been in limbo since May, when Wilson paused a planned expansion of the crime center due to its potential risks to peoples’ privacy and civil liberties. Wilson said she would wait to review an audit by the NYU Policing Project before deciding whether to turn on additional cameras the Police Department had installed in the city’s Stadium District, Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods.

The audit released Monday echoed some concerns published in a September review of the crime center by Seattle’s office of inspector general of public safety. Both reports recommended the Police Department implement clearer policies around its use of privately owned cameras.