Harrell last week in Seattle’s Real Time Crime Center (Image: City of Seattle)
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell is proposing legislation that would bring Seattle Police Department surveillance cameras to Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine nightlife district.
CHS first reported on the plan 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.
Last week in a press conference to tout the success of SPD’s Real Time Crime Center, Harrell’s office said the mayor backs an expansion of a pilot program that already has cameras along Aurora Ave, 3rd Ave, and in the International District to include areas around Cal Anderson and Pike/Pine.
The mayor’s office is also backing expansion of the 24×7 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 Harrell administration says it recently proposed legislation to the Seattle City Council that would expand “the geographic areas where City CCTV cameras can be installed, including public streets and sidewalks around Garfield and Nova High Schools, the Capitol Hill Nightlife District, and the SODO Stadium Area,” according to a statement from City Hall.
“The legislation also authorizes the RTCC to view and record SDOT traffic cameras at select intersections and along major arterial roads in the city,” the mayor’s office adds.
(Image: City of Seattle)
The proposed expansion comes as Harrell and new SPD Chief Shon Barnes 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 on May 20, the upgraded center has played a role in investigating 600 reported incidents and was currently supporting 90 active criminal investigations, officials said last week.
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.”
“RTCC analysts can communicate directly with officers in the field via police radio channels,” the city says. “During a recent gun violence incident near Aurora Avenue North, RTCC analysts used CCTV cameras to observe the shooting suspect, send an image of the suspect to responding patrol officers, and then advise officers of the escape route that the offender was taking.”
SPD first rolled out the RTCC in 2015 funded through a $411,000 Department of Justice grant. The mayor hasn’t put a public price tag on the new upgraded capabilities of Seattle’s RTCC or the proposed surveillance camera expansions. The addition of the initial set of Aurora, 3rd Ave, and ID cameras was reported as $1.8 million.
“Our Real Time Crime Center is already proving to be a vital tool in solving crimes and improving public safety across the city, supporting hundreds of investigations and accountability for dangerous offenders,” Harrell said in a statement. “By investing in and leveraging evidence-based technology, we’re giving our officers the resources they need to respond effectively while ensuring these tools are used responsibly and with strong safeguards. Public safety remains our top priority, and this initiative shows our commitment to creating safer neighborhoods for everyone in Seattle.”
“Our Real Time Crime Center is already proving to be a vital tool in solving crimes and improving public safety across the city, supporting hundreds of investigations and accountability for dangerous offenders,” said Mayor Harrell. “By investing in and leveraging evidence-based technology, we’re giving our officers the resources they need to respond effectively while ensuring these tools are used responsibly and with strong safeguards. Public safety remains our top priority, and this initiative shows our commitment to creating safer neighborhoods for everyone in Seattle.”
In the East Precinct, SPD has focused on drug issues and street disorder centered around Pike and Broadway and the area around Cal Anderson and Deputy Mayor Burgess’s renewed efforts sparked by neighborhood outcry — and a key email from a neighborhood developer — over an October murder on 11th Ave.
(Image: City of Seattle)
Burgess said earlier this year his office was working on a plan to add the area around Cal Anderson and Pike/Pine identified by SPD as a trouble zone for drug crimes and street disorder to the anti-crime camera system pilot being rolled out in the area around Aurora Ave N, the International District including Little Saigon, and the 3rd Ave corridor downtown.
Other City Hall initiatives including one of its biggest haven’t made much of an impact. CHS reported here on the so far rarely used Capitol Hill Stay Out of Drug Area and the first recipient of a banishment order for the zone.
Meanwhile, in the Central District, the 2024/2025 school year at Garfield High School began with new efforts around gun concerns at the 23rd Ave campus and across the city as Seattle officials led by Harrell announced a $14.5 million plan focused on intervention, mental health, and increased use of “school-based safety specialist” private security guards following the deadly lunchtime shooting of teen Amarr Murphy-Paine in June 2024 in the Garfield campus parking lot.
The timeline for expanding the cameras to Pike/Pine and 23rd Ave is not clear as chair Bob Kettle must now move the legislation forward with the council’s public safety committee.
Harrell, meanwhile, is engaged in a closer than expected race with challenger Katie Wilson as the August 5th primary approaches.
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