Two new audits released Wednesday revealed that the Seattle police generally followed surveillance rules in 2025 but also raised some concerns.
Two new reviews released Wednesday revealed that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) generally followed surveillance rules in 2025 but also raised some concerns, according to the Seattle Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson previously paused expansion of surveillance cameras until a separate commissioned audit by the NYU Policing Project is complete.
OIG found that SPD established appropriate policies for its Technology Assisted Public Safety pilot program and said officers and RTCC employees appeared to limit the use and sharing of surveillance information to approved crimes and incidents.
While OIG found no improper sharing of surveillance data, the office said Seattle had not established clear rules for integrating privately owned business cameras into the Real Time Crime Center, including where the feeds could be used, what they could show, and how long footage could be retained.
OIG also found that while there was no unauthorized access to the license plate database, SPD did not consistently document why it conducted searches, with required justifications missing from about 47% of searches in 2025.
The reviews examined SPD’s Real Time Crime Center, CCTV cameras, fleetwide automated license plate readers, and several lower-risk surveillance technologies.
OIG analyzed 1,659 clips of CCTV evidence from 2025 and found 98% were associated with high-priority calls or serious or violent crimes.
Only 38 clips involved incidents that were both nonviolent and low priority, with most involving Real Time Crime Center analysts assisting with traffic incidents.
OIG found no facial recognition software in the CCTV system and identified no instances in which surveillance data was improperly shared.
The SPD's Real Time Crime Center utilizes CCTV cameras around the city that send live video back to the base. (SPD)SPD installed cameras at 62 locations across downtown, the Chinatown-International District, and the Aurora corridor in April 2025, while 21 Stadium District cameras used during the 2026 FIFA World Cup were later turned off under Mayor Katie Wilson’s direction.
Wilson's decision will come as she faces broader public-safety scrutiny following communication failures after the deadly Bite of Seattle shooting, although these reviews were separate from the review she requested of the response to the shooting.
Although SPD policy prohibited analysts from proactively monitoring cameras without a corresponding 911 call or active case number, the Axon Fusus system did not require employees to provide a case number or justification before viewing footage.
OIG also found the city had not established clear standards governing where private cameras could be integrated, how SPD would prevent them from capturing nonpublic spaces, or how long privately recorded footage could remain available.
SPD-operated footage was generally retained for five days, clips created in Fusus were kept for 30 days, and evidence connected to criminal investigations could be stored indefinitely.
SPD recorded 3,346 verified license plate hits involving 1,894 unique plates between April and December 2025. These hits netted 83 arrests, including 78 reported felony arrests, before the department shut down and purged its ALPR database in March 2026.
OIG reported no new community concerns or police-accountability complaints involving the other technologies reviewed, closed 12 previous recommendations, and found parking-enforcement ALPR was the most frequently deployed system.
Computer and mobile-device extraction tools carried the highest reported cost at $497,618 and were used 315 times by SPD’s Technical and Electronic Support Unit and about 192 times by its Internet Crimes Against Children Unit.
