1.During a debate sponsored by the Urban Community Councils of Seattle Thursday evening, City Councilmember Sara Nelson casually said she and Councilmember Debora Juarez had laughed at people who showed up at council meetings to oppose the expansion of police surveillance cameras around the city.
As we reported at the time, every council meeting about police surveillance has included comments from dozens of people vehemently opposed to police surveillance of Seattle residents. Tthe new CCTV surveillance program began, ostensibly, as a “pilot” in July; just two weeks later, long before there was any data to demonstrate the effectiveness (and risks) of the cameras, the council took up legislation to expand the program.
Supporters have dismissed concerns that the Trump administration or red states could subpoena the city for footage to help them pursue and prosecute immigrants or people seeking abortions and gender-affirming care.
Nelson’s opponent, Dionne Foster, responded that she was ” absolutely shocked to hear you say you were chuckling at people who didn’t like” the legislation. “I stand here as a Black woman who does not support this legislation. I’ve heard you repeatedly, at debate after debate, invoke other council members of color.”
“There are other candidates of color who are running for office”—includign both Eddie Lin and Adonis Ducksworth, running for Council District 2— “who have been clear that they would not have supported this proposed expansion. I will also again reiterate, as I have before, that council member Rinck, one of the folks who did oppose it, is also a person of color. So let’s just make sure that we get that out there while we’re talking about the role that race and identity plays in these decisions.”.
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Nelson was also blithe about the privacy implications of widespread police surveillance. “Privacy is is undermined as we circulate through the city all the time,” she said. “We need to embrace technology.”
A recent University of Washington study found that US immigration agents were able to access license plate data maintained by at least 10 police departments in Washington state, despite assurances by surveillance firm Flock Safety that the information was secure.
2. Burien City Manager Adolfo filed a complaint with the state Public Disclosure Commission earlier this month over a campaign mailer that quoted a letter signed by dozens of Burien police officers expressing “no confidence” in Bailon and Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling. Schilling is running for state representative against fellow Democrat Edwin Obras, the 33rd Legislative District incumbent. The mailer, aimed at Republican voters, came from a political action committee backing Obras.
The no-confidence letter, which PubliCola covered last year, came after Bailon repeatedly said he wanted to fire then-Burien Police Chief Ted Boe (an employee of the King County Sheriff’s Office, which provides Burien’s police services) because Boe refused to direct officers to prioritize sweeping homeless people from their tents under Burien’s total ban on sleeping outdoors.
In his complaint, filed from his official government email address on October 8, Bailon accused the PAC of violating an unspecified law by “spreading misinformation for the purpose of defaming a non-political and non-public city employee, and attempting to mislead voters by spreading information that is knowingly false. The mailer also attempts to injure the reputation of a non-political and non-public city employee by attempting to prevent him from a right to unabashed social intercourse when communicating with all residents of the City of Burien, and counterparts from neighboring cities as Burien attempts to resolve issues affecting its region as a whole.”
Additionally, Bailon claimed, “Burien Police Department does not exist as an entity and does not have any employees”—suggesting that it was false and libelous to use the term the city itself uses for its police force.
It didn’t take long for the PDC to dismiss Bailon’s complaint. On October 20, the PDC informed Bailon that his complaint lacked merit, since the quotes on the mailer were accurate and there was “no evidence that these statements are being made with malice.”
“Additionally, the statements made appear to be characterizations that are debatable or open to interpretation rather than statements of material fact about any individuals,” PDC Compliance Coordinator Jordan Campbell wrote in the dismissal.
