The mayor’s office has revealed details of its proposed expansion of the Seattle Police “Real Time Crime Center” surveillance camera system to include the Capitol Hill nightlife core and a major swath of the Central District from E Cherry to Jackson it says it necessary to prevent gun violence near Garfield High School.
Maps and details of the proposed expansions were presented last week to the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee as the mayor’s office hands off legislation to expand the existing Real Time Crime Center camera pilot currently operating along Aurora Ave, 3rd Ave, and in the International District.
“Analysts are supporting ongoing investigations by pushing video and incident data directly to
patrol units and detectives,” a city council analysis of the proposal reads. “Analysts can also provide live updates and still images of suspects, a capability SPD says helps support its ‘precision policing’ model.”
CHS reported last month on the proposal that would expand the 24×7 surveillance program while also expanding the overall program to allow SPD “to view and record SDOT traffic cameras at select intersections and along major arterial roads in the city.”
The proposed SPD camera expansion would include adding the installations to the city’s Stadium District around Lumen Field and T-Mobile park.
The city already operates more than 350 traffic cameras across its streets. SPD’s current three-location system includes 57 cameras, the city says.
The proposed SPD expansion comes as Mayor Bruce Harrell and new Chief Shon Barnes have touted the early success of the RTCC and the pilot creating the new SPD surveillance system combining Closed-Circuit Television Camera systems above the city’s streets with “real-time crime center” software.after only two months of operation.
The city says the new system “integrates various video and data streams for enhanced analysis and investigation of crime incidents.”
Since its launch in May, the upgraded center has played a role in investigating 600 reported incidents and was currently supporting 90 active criminal investigations, officials said in July.
According to the city, RTCC analysts provide patrol officers and detectives with incident details, video images, and other relevant information, “often as incidents are happening.”
The Harrell administration says privacy concerns should be a matter of policy. Part of the legislation being proposed this summer would make changes in line with the city’s data retention policy that automatically deletes the files “30 days after date of recording, or until determined that no incident occurred that had evidentiary value.” The new “SPD-owned” cameras in any expansion would also be part of a mandated evaluation funded as part of the pilot program.
The mayor’s office claims it has buy-in from community after “public engagement efforts included conversations between the Garfield-Nova neighborhood and the Seattle Public Schools.”
“Camera installations for the Capitol Hill nightlife area were discussed at a community forum and through individual meetings with business leaders,” the city says.
The proposed Capitol Hill boundaries would cover the core of the Pike/Pine neighborhood along E Pike and E Pine between Broadway and 12th Ave with a mapped extension along Nagle Place and Broadway north of the core all the way to Denny/E Barbara Bailey Way and the southern edge of Capitol Hill Station and its Sound Transit security camera installations. The camera zone would stretch to the backside of Pike/Pine along E Union.
The Nagle extension would cover an area troubled by nighttime violence, camping, and street disorder and represents a de facto inclusion of Cal Anderson Park’s western edge including Bobby Morris Playfield and the skate area, dodgeball and tennis courts, and basketball court. The city hasn’t said if cameras would be installed in the park but any Nagle cameras would be in range of the park.
In the Central District, the Harrell administration is pushing for the camera system to be centered around safety at Garfield High School but with boundaries running from a block north of the school along E Cherry all the way to S Jackson. The western edge would include 20th Ave and the eastern edge would extend along 26th Ave. The zone would include Garfield’s 23rd Ave campus, the Garfield Super Block area including the Garfield Community Center and sports fields, and the troubled parking lot at 23rd and Jackson.
How the program handles private property like the 23rd and Jackson parking lot around businesses like AutoZone and Walgreens and public areas like the Garfield campus isn’t clear.
The extension to Jackson would allow the SPD system to monitor the area around the Vulcan Real Estate-owned parking lot and surrounding area where multiple incidents of gun violence have erupted including this 2023 drive-by shooting that damaged a nearby daycare and sent one man to the hospital.
The Capitol Hill system will cost around $400,000 to install and $35,000 a year to operate.
The Central District installation has a budget of $425,000 and also an estimated $35,000 in “ongoing annual costs.”
CHS first reported on the expansion plans in December as Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess included the proposal during a public safety meeting with the neighborhood’s business community sparked by ongoing challenges around street crime and drug use around the Broadway-Pike/Pine core and Cal Anderson Park.
The mayor’s office is also backing expansion of the surveillance program to include the area around Garfield High School where the city and the district are spending thousands on security upgrades and community services to counter deadly gun violence that has marred the campus.
Garfield is also being considered for a pilot program beginning this fall that would pay for a Seattle Police School Engagement Officer on the campus.
The Capitol Hill and CD systems are currently not funded and will require a funding source to be identified. The mayor’s office says the $200,000 Stadium District expansion will be paid for out of the city’s 2026 FIFA World Cup spending.
The proposed expansions come as Harrell and city officials say there has been a turnaround in Seattle Police hiring as they push for a goal of growing SPD’s ranks from the just under 1,000 officers on patrol in 2022 to nearly 1,500 by 2027.
Meanwhile, crime stats show a downward trend for the city after spikes in reports of violent and property crime coming out of the pandemic.
The council’s public safety community is expected to finalize debate and vote on the proposals at its meeting next week.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support 👍
