Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announces CCTV camera expansion

Seattle's police surveillance cameras are expanding and rolling in the stadium district right now. Mayor Katie Wilson announced the move today following a new audit flagging key safeguards and policy gaps. Fox 13's Dan Griffin brings you Reaction Today from City Hall. The mayor was in a tough spot. Supporters wanted all the cameras powered on months ago. Opponents, meanwhile, fought relentlessly to tear them down. Now her plan is clear and the cameras are immediately back on in Soto. I am authorizing SPD to move forward with the expansion of CCTV cameras. Next stops, Capitol Hill and the Central District in a matter of months. The stadium district cameras were installed prior to the World Cup. And will be turned on immediately. Surveillance has dominated Mayor Katie Wilson's first year, temporarily restarting those disabled cams for the World Cup, then tested by a deadly summer of gun violence. There are good reasons for targeted deployment of police CCTV cameras in areas experiencing persistent crime. Wilson requested this year's NYU Policing Project audit. It confirmed safeguards like facial recognition bans and flagged SPD gaps in policies, including user access and outside requests and offered 19 fixes In June, we had zero homicides. I won't credit the cameras alone, but they helped our officers and our detectives tremendously. Tuesday, city council's public safety chair backed the move. I commend the mayor for the decision that she made. The downtown Seattle Association and Seattle Metro Chamber also praised leveraging 21st century tech for safety, but others fired back. We have a broad pool from which to hire if we wanted to operate a system that was fully controlled by us. That is simply not what this system provided by Axon is. They fear federal prying. The mayor counters zero requests have surfaced for immigration or reproductive enforcement. I am dedicated to making Seattle the safest big city in the country. Now, the mayor says there's a lot of work ahead in the coming months as the city purchases and installs cameras in those expanded neighborhoods. She also says in the meantime, SPD will be working to implement most of the recommendations in that audit. Reporting at City Hall, Dan Griffin, Fox 13 News.