Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson faced criticism online this week after an uncomfortable exchange during a televised interview about the city’s gun violence reduction plan, alongside Seattle Police Assistant Chief Nicole Powell and Amy Barden, chief of the city’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Department.
During the interview, KOMO News reporter Chris Daniels asked Powell whether newly installed Flock-type surveillance cameras could help solve unsolved cases in the city. Powell paused, looked down and started to answer twice before Wilson stepped in to respond instead.
“Cameras are obviously a useful tool, right? We’ve seen in the ‘Bite of Seattle’ shooting there’s been camera footage from businesses around Seattle center, we have cameras at Seattle center, those cameras have been useful tools in solving crime, there’s no doubt about that,” Wilson said.
Powell chuckled and looked off camera as Wilson spoke. When Daniels followed up by asking what the metric of success would be, Powell looked toward Wilson, who answered, her voice cracking slightly, “Ultimately, we want to see zero homicides, we want to see fewer homicides, and we want to see fewer guns shot.”
Daniels then asked directly whether Powell or Barden would like to answer the question. Barden responded first, saying, “From my side, in addition to shots fired and homicides, you want to look at referrals in the services and whether or not somebody is making meaningful improvement in their life.”
Powell then added, “Just to piggyback, taking a holistic approach, this strategy works,” followed by, “It is proven in other cities like this, and it takes all of us.”
A Shift in Position on Surveillance
The exchange comes amid ongoing debate in Seattle and other cities over expanding surveillance camera networks. During her campaign last year, Wilson argued against expanding the city’s camera system. In September, according to The Urbanist, she said “turning on more cameras won’t magically make our neighborhoods safer. But it will certainly make our neighbors more vulnerable.”
Since taking office, Wilson has paused further expansion of the surveillance system pending a privacy and data-governance audit, while allowing existing cameras to keep operating. She has said the results of that audit will guide whether and how the system expands.
Asked during the KOMO interview when she would set a timeline for a decision, Wilson said, “I’m going to sound like a broken record on this, but we’ve been conducting this audit of our data security and storage and privacy practices, we’re expecting the results of that audit around the end of this month and so, at the end of this month, we’ll be making that information public, and then I’ll be making a decision about that expansion.”
Online Reaction
Clips of the exchange circulated widely online. The conservative account “End Wokeness” called it an “incredible moment,” writing that Powell “looks nervously at Mayor Katie Wilson” when asked about the cameras. The political advocacy group Future 42 also criticized the mayor, posting that Powell’s “facial expression and silence say it all,” and questioning whether Wilson “has any idea what she is doing as Mayor of Seattle.”
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