Mayor Wilson, Police, Privacy

As Business-Backed Poll Says Most Support Police Surveillance Cameras, Privacy Advocates Raise Security Concerns
Community Not Cameras coalition member A.J. Randall speaks at City Hall on Monday while Noah Willams films.

By Erica C. Barnett

As a new poll appeared to show strong support for police surveillance in Seattle neighborhoods, a group of police camera opponents said a visit to SPD’s surveillance headquarters raised more concerns about the security of Seattle’s surveillance footage and the potential for outside actors, such as ICE, to access and use the footage.

Mayor Katie Wilson paused expansion of the cameras, and turned off some cameras the city activated during the World Cup, until an outside consultant, NYU’s Policing Project, can complete a privacy and safety audit of the system. That review is supposed to be finalized next month.

The poll, released by Challenge Seattle—an alllance of 23 businesses started by former Gov. Chris Gregoire—and the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce, indicates overwhelming support for police camera surveillance across virtually every demographic group. But there are a couple of reasons to suspect that organic support for SPD cameras may be lower than the 75 percent topline Challenge Seattle and the Chamber are touting.

First, each of the three questions pollsters Fulcrum Strategy Group asked includes several positive claims about cameras, followed by a very brief description of opponents’ position.

For example, the question that yielded a 75 percent support rate was worded this way:

The Seattle Police Department sometimes uses cameras in designated public spaces after a 911 call to assist in an active investigation. These cameras do not use facial recognition technology or AI and are monitored by civilian employees, not police officers. Supporters of this policy say that it has helped catch suspects who have committed violent crimes and helps reduce crime rates. Opponents say that this kind of surveillance infringes on civil liberties and invades privacy. Knowing this, do you support or oppose allowing the use of cameras after a 911 call to assist in an active investigation?

Even with such a biased description of the cameras and SPD’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC)—supporters who claim the cameras reduce crime are observing that crime went down over the past year and crediting cameras as the cause—just 45 percent of respondents said they strongly support the cameras, while another 30 percent said they “somewhat” supported them after “knowing” the information included in the question. The poll says 55 percent of people who self-identify as progressives also support the cameras, though the data they released doesn’t break down how much of that support is in the tentative “somewhat” category.

More telling, perhaps, is that another recent poll conducted by the same consultant, this one sponsored by the Chamber alone, found that support for cameras—as well as policies that restrict where people accused of misdemeanor drug crimes can go—was about the same in May as it was one year earlier.

In both 2025 and 2026, 51 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, “Recent laws like adding street cameras to help track crime and restricting people from returning to places where they’ve committed crimes are making Seattle safer and reducing crime.” Just 16 percent of those “strongly” agreed with this more neutrally worded statement. Meanwhile, 48 percent disagreed, up from 46 percent last year. With a 3.9 percent margin of error, that’s an even split.

Opponents of surveillance cameras have argued that if people knew more about how their information could be used—and SPD’s lack of direct authority over camera footage owned by its vendor, Axon—they would be less likely to support  expanding the cameras into more and more parts of the city. On Monday, a group of advocates from the Community Not Cameras coalition toured the RTCC and, according to Transit Riders Union member Noah Williams, reached some “very scary” conclusions about who can access the footage and how well it’s protected from outside interference.

“When the SPD and the mayor’s office and city staff tell you that the footage lives on our servers until it is called up, that is true,” Williams said at a press conference immediately after the coalition RTCC visit. The problem, he continued, is that access to the system is managed by a cloud vendor controlled by Axon, a private company, which can access footage directly, stream it on their own cloud-based platform, and push software and configuration changes without telling SPD.

“And if they can do it, so can anyone who hacks them, and so can the federal government,” Williams said. “And the city will have no idea.” The system operates on a public-facing website that does not require a virtual private network (VPN) to access, Williams said, making it easier for hackers to “start trying to find vulnerabilities” in the system.

Phil Mocek, a privacy advocate with the coalition, said the visit made him more convinced that SPD has a “Swiss cheese” system with many open pathways for Axon—or Flock, should the two companies ever merge—to access footage and information from the RTCC’s surveillance cameras as well as automated license plate reader software. SPD halted its use of Axon’s ALPR system earlier this year, when legislators passed new restrictions on ALPR use, but coalition members who went on yesterday’s tour said they learned that the software can only be disabled by Axon.

After the RTCC visit, several of the anti-surveillance activists said Lee Hunt, one of the executive staffers to former police chief Shon Barnes who plans to leave the department next month, “blew up” at the group and “stormed out of the room” twice in response to their questions.

A spokesman for SPD confirmed that Axon is able to push updates to its software, but said “all new functions are supposed to remain ‘off’ by default.”

The spokesman said camera footage is “stored locally” and cited a policy that says Axon “shall notify SPD if the Contractor receives a warrant or subpoena seeking SPD data for any purpose, including purposes related to immigration status, reproductive healthcare, or gender affirming medical services, unless prohibited by operation of law in which case, the Contractor will notify SPD about the warrant or subpoena and action taken when that prohibition is lifted; and, the Contractor shall retain or use in-house legal counsel to object to any warrant or subpoena on the grounds that Contractor does not have possession, custody or control over SPD evidence.”

homelessness

As KCRHA Begins Layoffs, Union Suggests Cutting Top Executives First
KCRHA associate director William Towey

By Erica C. Barnett

An initial round of layoffs is imminent at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. Management reportedly informed the agency’s executive leadership team last week which staffers will lose their jobs in late August or early September. Agency CEO Kelly Kinnison told city and county leaders basic details about the layoffs in a weekly meeting last week.

The job cuts are part of a transition plan that will move most of  the homeless service contracts KCRHA currently oversees back to the city of Seattle and King County, which managed them before KCRHA took them over in 2021.

In April, a forensic audit found that the KCRHA lacked basic financial controls and used casual accounting practices to keep track of and balance its budget, lost track of at least $8 million in spending, and had an ongoing, steadily growing negative cash balance that required it to take out ever-larger loans from the county, resulting in interest payments that the agency couldn’t afford.

Since then, agency leaders have downplayed the problems and blamed them on early mistakes by previous KCRHA management, including founding CEO Mark Dones. As Kinnison and her recently hired deputy, William Towey, insisted the problems identified in the audit were fixable, the city and county worked out a plan to largely dismantle the agency. King County and Seattle are now in the process of taking back control of homeless contracts the two governments previously controlled and staffing up with the expectation that KCRHA will dramatically reduce its workforce.

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A KCRHA spokesperson would not provide details about the layoffs last week. However, KCRHA staffers have expressed concern that some of the initial job losses will be in areas the agency still needs to do the work it will retain for now, like the “point-in-time count” of the region’s homeless population and the region’s annual application for federal homelessness dollars, rather than the areass where KCRHA staff will soon be redundant, such as the program and finance divisions.

Last week, staff represented by the PROTEC17 union sent a letter to the agency’s governing board urging the board to lay off Kinnison and Towey, whose combined compensation tops $600,000—”the direct financial cost of five to six full-time operational staff,” the letter says. “In a crisis, preserving positions that directly manage vendor contracts, coordinate shelter logistics, and administer Coordinated Entry produces a far higher operational yield than maintaining executive overhead.”

The union members also cited controversies that, they argued, could put the KCRHA’s reputation at continued risk, including bias complaints and allegations of retaliation as well as evidence that Kinnison sought to withhold records from public disclosure, in potential violation of the state Public Records Act.

“In a crisis, preserving positions that directly manage vendor contracts, coordinate shelter logistics, and administer Coordinated Entry produces a far higher operational yield than maintaining executive overhead.”

The finance committee of the agency’s governing board is reportedly scheduled to discuss the layoffs in their meeting on Thursday. However, unlike governing board meetings and a June finance committee meeting, this meeting will not be open to the public. According to the agency spokesperson, a resolution adopted in June making the committee an advisory, rather than decision-making, body meant its meetings no longer have to be public.

KCRHA currently has 73 staff, a number that includes one of the seven new positions the governing board approved, at Kinnison’s request, back in June. (None of the other positions were filled.) The agency has overspent its administrative budget by as much as $1 million so far this year.

“We anticipate there will be further staff reductions in 2026 and 2027 as contracts fully transition back to the City and County,” the KCRHA spokesperson said. “During the transition there will be functional overlap, with KCRHA managing 2026 contracts into early 2027 for closeout—while the City and County hire staff in 2026 and prepare to onboard the 2027 contracts.”

Kinnison will be out of the office later this week and will not be at the finance committee meeting; Towey will (not for the first time) attend in her stead.

Elections, legislature, Mayor Wilson, Media

Greater Seattle: Junk Fees, Recalling Wilson, and Ron Davis’ Post-Election Fixation

By Josh Feit

8 > 75

Seventy-five dollars was the cost of an unfair “notice fee” that then-PubliCola freelancer Katie Wilson cited when, as a crusading writer in 2023, she wrote a piece for us condemning junk fees—the insidious add-ons that landlords pile onto renters to increase the actual amount they pay every month. These fees include things like “administrative” fees, charges to receive packages, and unspecified “service” charges. Wilson’s $75 “notice fee” example was “for preparing and giving the notice” that a tenant had to remove a potted plant from their balcony.

Eight is the number of votes now-Mayor Katie Wilson got last week, when the city council unanimously passed her legislation banning these junk fees. (The vote excluded Maritza Rivera, who had to recuse herself because she owns a rental property). A 2025 Urban Institute study found that these types of arbitrary and undisclosed fees can add between 10 and 30 percent to base rent.

As chair of the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights Committee, A-student Councilmember Dionne Foster sponsored Wilson’s priority legislation, noting that the fees disproportionately hit Black residents, seniors, young renters, and working-class people.

Trump’s Case Against U.S. Olympian David Hearn for Vandalizing the Reflecting Pool (since abandoned by Trump’s own DOJ) > North Seattle Couple’s Case for Recalling Katie Wilson

Speaking of the misconception that Mayor Wilson is flailing: It seems unlikely that the recall request submitted against Wilson last week (by a north Seattle couple who are angry about the way Wilson handled the Seattle Center shooting and her overall approach to crime) will get far.

Like in cities nationwide, crime is down in Seattle this year.

The recall proponents must show and detail malfeasance or a violation of the oath of office. Those claims need to pass muster with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and then the King County Superior Court. If that happens, the aggrieved duo needs to get 69,000 valid signatures to send the recall effort to the ballot.

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0 > $6,250  

$6,250 is what third place North Seattle state house candidate Ron Davis spent on political consultants in the runup to the August primary. $0 is what the Stranger is paying to live rent-free in Davis’ head.

I do not come to praise the Stranger. I was the news editor there for nine years two decades ago, built a dogged news section (that included ECB!), established and forged the influence of  the SECB (Stranger Election Control Board), and have since watched from afar as the news section has lost its credibility and the paper has lost its way (long before Brady Walkinshaw took over.) And so yes, I agree that their outsized influence over elections is a drag.

But Ron Davis’ recent sour-grapes email to his supporters about the Stranger—in which he even seems to take issue with the fact that they make endorsements— says more about him than about the paper. For starters, his conspiracy theories about Walkinshaw’s centrist agenda make little sense when you consider the paper endorsed socialist Kshama Sawant along with a slew of progressives, such as Kelabe Tewolde, Nilu Jenks, Rebeca Saldaña, Nicole Macri, Teresa Mosqueda, Gabe Rothstein, and Rob Foxcurran. (They also have a legit, self-avowed Marxist on their staff and editorial board who wrote a pro-Sawant piece in advance of her primary challenge against Rep. Adam Smith.)

Ah. But they didn’t endorse Ron Davis. I don’t know why they didn’t; he’s a dedicated YIMBY and they probably should have supported him to emphasize why the NIMBY incumbent in the race, Gerry Pollet, is the wrong choice. But neither the revolution Davis believed he would bring to Olympia nor Stranger-endorsed second-place challenger Will Dreher’s bland agenda points to oligarchic marching orders from on high. And if the Stranger is the compromised avatar of centrism Davis thinks it is, why does he want their endorsement so badly (doth protest way too much)?

Davis is not the first person to base his whole campaign on getting the Stranger’s endorsement in the primary (it’s every local consultant’s “knowing” advice.) But sending out a 3,000-word concession email with a section—a section!—titled “Educate my community on how the recent purchase of The Stranger by still-anonymous wealthy investors had corrupted a once-reliable ally in the progressive movement” is not healthy behavior.

Josh@Publicola.com

City Council, homelessness, labor, Mayor Durkan, Police

This Week On PubliCola: SPD Exodus, Proposed RV Restrictions, Wilson Derangement Syndrome, and More

By Erica C. Barnett

Monday, August 10

Greater Seattle: Primary Election Edition

In the second edition of his new column, Josh Feit argues that Mayor Wilson is doing better than the mainstream press—who’ve had it in for her ever since she defeated business bro Bruce Harrell—would have you believe. Plus, some more good news for Wilson’s fellow progressives on both ends of the city.

Tuesday, August 11

Strauss Legislation Would Require RV Residents to Get Permits, Accept “Appropriate” Shelter

City Councilmember Dan Strauss says a new set of proposals will give people living in RVs and trailers new opportunities to move into shelter and housing—and, by the way, rid the city of unsightly vehicles. Homeless advocates say the punitive elements of Strauss’ plan, which would create RV permits that could be revoked for a long list of reasons, could leave many desperate people worse off than before.

Wednesday, August 12

Interim Police Chief Andre Sayles Says He Won’t Be Barnes 2.0: “I’m All About Collaboration”

In an interview with PubliCola, new interim police chief Andre Sayles talked about how he’ll be different than his predecessor, Shon Barnes, who hired Sayles as his second deputy chief in 2025. I asked Sayles how he’ll repair broken trust with Seattle’s LGBTQ community, how he’ll work with the CARE Team of first responders, and whether he plans to move to Seattle permanently—like Barnes, Sayles has a home out of state and travels to visit his family there.

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Thursday, August 13

Councilmembers Blame Mayor For Delayed SPD Press Conference, Criticize Removal of Former Chief Barnes

A council meeting billed as a 15-minute “quick look” at SPD’s response to the Bite of Seattle shooting devolved into grandstanding and political theater, as council members fell over themselves to blame Mayor Katie Wilson for a delayed press conference the night of the shooting, conveniently absolving SPD of responsibility for information flow on a night when then-chief Barnes was out of town.

Friday, August 14

Former Chief Barnes’ Top Staffers Leave SPD

The exodus of Barnes’ top staffers—Sayles excepted—has begun, with the departure of chief communications officer Barbara DeLollis and crime prevention specialist Lee Hunt from the department. Barnes brought an entourage of new, highly paid executive staff with him when he started; his reluctance to cut any of these extra positions during a budget crisis was reportedly a source of tension with Wilson.

KOMO Reporters Leave Union

A group of 22 reporters and anchors at KOMO TV will no longer be represented by SAG-AFTRA, after a 9-7 vote to decertify their union last week.

Also this week: I was a guest on Brian Callanan’s podcast News, Views, and Brews, where we discussed Barnes’ resignation, the recent primary elections, and the passage of Mayor Katie Wilson’s legislation banning rental “junk fees.” Brian is the longtime host of City Inside/Out on the Seattle Channel.

And: I covered many of the same topics as a guest (alongside musician and podcaster John Roderick and Washington Policy Center’s Paul Guppy) on KUOW’s Week In Review, where our conversation about Barnes’ departure and the search for Seattle’s next police chief took some surprising twists—turns out John and I share a loathing for management theories and leadership-conference jargon.

labor, Media, podcasts, Police

Former Chief Barnes’ Top Staffers Leave SPD, KOMO Reporters Leave Union, and More

1. Two top staffers hired by former police chief Shon Barnes are leaving SPD. Chief communications officer Barbara DeLollis, who’s been on leave caring for a family member on the East Coast, will not return to Seattle, and Lee Hunt, Barnes’ Executive Director of Crime and Community Harm Reduction, Lee Hunt, is retiring, according to SPD. Both will be gone by early September.

Shortly after his confirmation last year, Barnes brought on a number of new executive-level staffers, including a second deputy chief, now-interim Police Chief Andre Sayles; a chief of staff, Alex Ricketts, DeLollis; Hunt; and an additional assistant chief, Nicole Powell. New positions had to be created for Sayles, Hunt, and Powell, and DeLollis’ title was new.

The chief of staff position, which had not existed since 2001, was revived by former chief Adrian Diaz for Jamie Tompkins, who was fired, along with Diaz, after an investigation found they lied to cover up an improper relationship. Ricketts, who also worked alongside Barnes in Madison and North Carolina, remains at SPD for now.

SPD Chief Operating Officer Sarah Smith (another Barnes hire) said Hunt “has given notice to the department of his upcoming retirement in September. … We are deeply appreciative of his insight and work on stratified policing within SPD.” Stratified policing consisted of focusing on crime “hot spots” and focusing higher-ranked officers on “high-priority” crimes and geographic areas. Of DeLollis, Smith said, “We will miss her passion for transparent communication and really hope her family is well.”

DeLollis made $230,000 a year. Hunt, who—like Ricketts—previously worked with Barnes in North Carolina and Madison, made $320,000 a year. Not counting Ricketts and DeLollis, and setting aside the $50,000 bonuses Barnes, Sayles, and Powell all received under an incentive program created to recruit rank-and-file officers, the newly created positions cost the city almost a million dollars a year. The city is facing a minimum $175 million budget deficit, and Barnes reportedly resisted reducing the size of his unusually large executive staff to help close that gap.

In addition, Barnes received a total settlement worth at least $741,000 (including that $50,000 bonus, which the city let him keep) in exchange for not suing the city.

DeLollis, a former corporate communicator and luxury travel writer, has scrubbed her LinkedIn page of any references to SPD, where she worked for more than a year. Her page now says she has been communications director for Harvard’s Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society since 2022.

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2. KOMO News reporters and anchors voted narrowly—9 to 7—to leave their union, the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) on Wednesday, with another half-dozen members apparently declining to vote. Unless SAG-AFTRA challenges the proceedings—unlikely, given that they reportedly raised no objections during or leading up to the vote—KOMO’s on-air talent will no longer be represented by a union.

As I reported last week, there are a number of reasons some at KOMO wanted out of the union, including the fact that they negotiate their contracts individually, rather than through SAG-AFTRA, whose contract guarantees a minimum salary that is much lower than the anchors and reporters make. The group already gets its health care through Sinclair, which owns KOMO, rather than the union.

3. I was a guest on Brian Callanan’s News, Views, and Brews podcast this week, where we had a great conversation about Barnes’ resignation (including my reporting on the ex-chief’s frequent absences from Seattle, which a recent guest incorrectly claimed was false or fabricated) the recent primary elections, and the passage of Mayor Katie Wilson’s legislation banning rental “junk fees.” Check it out.

City Council, Mayor Wilson, Police

Councilmembers Blame Mayor For Delayed SPD Press Conference, Criticize Removal of Former Chief Barnes

By Erica C. Barnett

When interim police chief Andre Sayles, mayoral public safety director Alison Holcomb, and SPD Captain Randy Hunt came to this week’s City Council public safety committee meeting to provide a “quick look” at the city’s response to the  recent shooting at Seattle Center, the briefing was scheduled for 15 minutes. It ended up taking well over an hour, as council members grilled Holcomb about why a press conference on July 26 didn’t happen until almost five hours after the shooting.

The meeting—which began with Rob Saka repeatedly bellowing, “Is there a killer on the loose?”—was largely political theater: The council wants the public to see them as tough and concerned with public safety.

But the tense session also revealed how eager some council members are to blame the mayor for any P.R. screwups on the night of the shooting—and absolve the police, including former chief Shon Barnes, who was out of town when gunfire broke out at the Bite of Seattle, as were Sayles and his fellow deputy chief Yvonne Underwood.

Debora Juarez, who was appointed to Cathy Moore’s seat after Moore quit the council last year, hammered away at Holcomb in a Court TV-style interrogation.

“I can call you Alison? Thank you,” Juarez began. “Because I want to be clear, I don’t want to do a gotcha moment. I’m not trying to humiliate anybody. I just want to understand.” Juarez then attempted to get Holcomb to agree that “the communication problem was between the mayor’s office and SPD,” that Wilson was “not allowing” an SPD public information officer, Brian Pritchard, to testify before the council, and that Wilson’s office “was not communicating with Seattle City Council” on the night of the shooting.

A timeline Kettle released this week shows that Wilson’s office was in touch with the council within less than a hour. That timeline also includes a text from Barnes saying he was working to get a conference call together shortly after 8, followed by a conference call that ended around 9:23, more than three hours after the shooting.

“I’m going to submit to you, Alison, and we both know how this works: I don’t think we need an investigation,” Juarez said. “I think you could tell us right now why there was a five-hour delay.”

Juarez also suggested that no one had any idea where Wilson even was, because she had her camera off during a Teams call the night of the shooting. “I’m not trying to create some cloak and dagger, but if I were the mayor, I would have [turned my camera on],” Juarez said. Then she suggested that Wilson asked the city’s Office of Inspector General to review the events of July 26 as a distraction from the fact that Wilson herself delayed the press conference five hours so that “dignitaries”—Senator Pramila Jayapal and Governor Bob Ferguson—could get there.

“We’re hearing… that some of the people in the mayor’s office didn’t know the difference between a mass hysteria, ‘we need a press conference now to calm people down’… and then later on you do the fancy political press conference and wait for dignitaries to arrive,” Juarez said.

PubliCola’s own reporting on the incident suggests the delay had multiple causes. Initially, SPD still considered the area an active crime scene with a potential shooter at large. Barnes, who was at a conference in Dallas, reportedly wanted a full briefing before he would allow SPD officials on the ground to address the press. Several of SPD’s media relations staffers were out of town, leaving one detective, Brian Pritchard, to answer questions at the scene. And finally, Ferguson and Jayapal wanted to be at the press conference, even if—as both have said—they did not ask the city to wait for them to get there. The balance of these forces, and any other reasons for the delay, will be among the subjects of the OIG’s report and a more detailed committee briefing on September 22.

Holcomb said the mayor’s office and public were less interested in why a press conference was delayed than “why didn’t the public receive more information sooner. … That’s a very different question about why didn’t a press conference happen on site at a certain time. Which, frankly, because you and I both know what’s happening here, is a political question. We’re concerned about public safety right now, and that’s what we’re focused on.”

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Councilmember Dan Strauss then jumped on the anti-Wilson bandwagon, echoing Juarez’ claim that Holcomb could easily tell the council what happened the night of the shooting if she really wanted to. “We don’t need to have an OIG investigation. We could answer those questions right now,” Strauss said.

“No, we can’t, because in fact I don’t know the answer to that question, and as I indicated in my answers to Councilmember Juarez, there were dozens of people who were texting and calling each other with lots of information that evening,” Holcomb responded.

A casual observer might wonder why the city council is making such a big deal out of a press conference that took place more than two weeks ago. After all, both SPD and the mayor put out information about the shooting on social media and via press release prior to the press conference and kept Kettle in the loop in real time.

But as the council monologues went on, it was clear that the council believes the mayor isn’t communicating sufficiently  with them before she makes major decisions, including executive decisions like firing the head of city departments.

“I’m going to talk now about the police chief being asked to resign, because it was similar in the way that [former Seattle City Light director] Dawn Lindell was asked, was fired, was asked to resign,” Strauss said as the brief passed the one-hour mark. “That same set of experiences that I had with Dawn Lindell being let go from the city occurred with Chief Barnes last week.”

As far as he could tell, Strauss continued, Wilson asked Barnes to step down as a fall guy for communication issues after the shooting. “The mayor asked the police chief to resign with very little information, and so the best that I can do is surmise that because there was some communication difference or difficulty, that the chief was asked to resign,” Strauss said.

Wilson signed a settlement agreement with Barnes that included a mutual nondisparagement clause, which almost certainly limits the extent to which she can badmouth the former chief’s performance. Instead, she has said that she has more insight into what’s going on at SPD, an executive department, than the council and outside observers.

That comment rubbed some councilmembers the wrong way. “When the mayor says, “You know, we have I have a better window” into the police chief’s performance, Kettle said, “what’s clear here is that she does not have a better window. She does not have a better window than I do. She does not have a better window than probably the majority of the council.”

As we’ve reported, there are many potential reasons Wilson may have let Barnes go, beyond his frequent trips to his family home in Chicago or his inappropriate response to a question about his travel schedule.