Public Safety Chair Kettle urges Mayor to reconsider post-FIFA community safety camera shutoff

Today, Councilmember Bob Kettle (District 7), chair of the Public Safety Committee, released the following statement with respect to Mayor Katie B. Wilson’s announcement Tuesday that she has “turned off” cameras in the Stadium District and halted the previously approved expansion of the Real Time Crime Center program.

“As local elected officials, we all take an oath to the Charter and the Ordinances of the City of Seattle.

“Public safety is central to our Charter and its requirements with the Department of Police (Article VI) and Fire Department (Article X) for the purpose of ‘protecting and enhancing the health, safety, environment, and the general welfare of the people.’  Numerous ordinances have been enacted into law to underpin, with Seattle values and clear guardrails, our safety technology program centered on the closed-circuit Television (CCTV) cameras and Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems and the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC).

“Our oaths must be respected. They mean something. So I ask Mayor Wilson to respect her oath and consistently apply our adopted ordinances. We must lead on this principle and not follow the example seen so often in the ‘other’ Washington. I, in turn, pledge to work with the mayor and her administration in good faith on any updates to our safety technology program.”

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