May 2026

Will Seattle run a ballot initiative next year to unleash the CARE team?

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Seattle news:

I wrote about the imperilment of the Graham Street and Boeing Access Road light rail stations. The Sound Transit vote on the issue took place on Thursday, and the Graham Street station is back on track, mostly because Seattle stepped up to make it happen. Unfortunately, Boeing Access Road and three Ballard stations didn’t fare as well. 

I also wrote about the obstacles facing the CARE team. Yes, I’ve written about it before, but 1.there still seems to be confusion about it, and 2. I wanted to present a few new options on the table to address it. 

As we all know, Seattle is facing a significant budget deficit for 2027. One option on the table, reported on by PubliCola, is a special fire district tax that would move much of the Seattle Fire Department’s budget out of the general fund by raising property taxes to pay for it instead. Interesting idea, and only possible because of a law change earlier this year in the state legislature. 

Residents along the Aurora Ave North corridor have been putting up makeshift barricades to address the gun violence in their neighborhood. Mayor Katie Wilson has directed SDOT to replace these barricades with temporary traffic calming treatments expected to be installed sometime this weekend. 

Meanwhile, the Council will be considering a bill that would allow SPD and SDOT to close streets for public safety reasons.

At the same time, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office reports that deadly gun violence incidents in Seattle and King County have continued to drop. As Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reports: “In her office’s latest updates, Manion says the first quarter of 2026 marked a new milestone in the return to safer levels as deadly shootings dropped to “single digits” for the first time in nine years.” 

AI/Surveillance/Immigration news:

A new report from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights found that “without deliberate and outcome-oriented interventions, AI will likely amplify the racial wealth gap rather than narrow it.”

I reported on the large data center moratorium currently being discussed by the Seattle City Council. Committee votes are expected on Wednesday. 

404 Media reported that the FBI wants to buy nation-wide access to automatic license plate reader data. The most likely vendors for this would be Flock Safety and Motorola Solutions.

Meanwhile, the city of Renton suspended their Flock contract and the city of Edmonds cancelled their Flock contract, following in the footsteps of Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood. Everett and Stanwood have ceased their pause of their Flock networks, however, and are back to using them . 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation analyzed millions of police searches of Flock license plate data and found that “law enforcement agencies have moved beyond specific investigations to use these surveillance networks for virtually any whim.” Their analysis looked at police use of this surveillance for school district residency checks, background checks, and noise complaints. 

I reported on the temporary contract between the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma and ICE, which has lowered the standards for the facility. I also covered the new lawsuit the Washington State Attorney General filed against the GEO Group, who operates the center, to allow the state department of health to perform inspections of the facility.. 

Last week The Stranger reported that ICE transferred leaders of a hunger strike at the detention center away from the Tacoma center in what advocates say was retaliation.

Recent Headlines:

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Seattle looks to tighten its budget belt for 2027

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Seattle News:

I wrote about how Seattle’s new drug ordinance is going about two and a half years in. It’s not good, to put it mildly. Drug arrests are up, LEAD referrals are down. Even Councilmember Bob Kettle thinks it’s a failure. Be on the lookout for a revamped drug ordinance later this year. And District 2 only had 2 LEAD referrals in a one year period. I checked in with Councilmember Eddie Lin’s office after the public safety committee presentation, but he hadn’t yet received any answers as to why that is the case. 

SPOG made an interesting X post last week, calling Kent Loux, SPOG’s new president, “Seattle’s top cop union boss” and blaming “what’s gutting downtown” on socialism. But hey, at least Loux hasn’t started up his own SPOG podcast…yet. 

Mayor Katie Wilson and her Budget Director Ali Pennucchi sat down with Brian Callanan on the Seattle Channel to discuss Seattle’s budget. 2027’s budget now has a $175 million deficit. Wilson has asked all city departments to prepare models for 5% and 10% cuts, and has said she wants to address the deficit through a combination of cuts and new revenue. 

Wilson said there’s no “silver bullet” when it comes to a new progressive revenue source that could provide a permanent fix for Seattle’s structural budget problem. 

Wilson also said she didn’t foresee winding down the work of the United Care Team anytime soon. 

You can read my live-posting of the budget presentation here. It’s worth noting that $175 million is close to 10% of the total $2 billion General Fund. 

PubliCola wrote about an Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit on the practice of retiring SPD officers going on extended leave to take advantage of accumulated sick leave. A new policy requiring officers to provide verification for taking sick leave is supposed to go into effect later this year. 

Looking at this coming Tuesday’s public safety committee agenda, the OIG will also be doing an audit on SPD overtime usage in the future, so that should be interesting. 

PubliCola covered what appears to be some communication issues between the new Mayor’s Office and the City Council. The land use committee still ultimately approved Wilson’s shelter expansion proposal. 

Surveillance News:

The City Council of Shoreline cancelled a planned meeting with Flock Safety after residents expressed their dismay.

Both Tukwila and Renton had Flock Safety/ALPRs on their agendas for their Monday, 5/4 meetings. 

Issaquah has Flock on the agenda for their Monday evening meeting on 5/11. 

WA State News:

Last week I published a story all about the Washington State Supreme Court elections, with a majority of the seats on the Court being on the ballot this year. I spent a lot of extra time on this piece because I think so much is at stake with these elections, so I hope you check it out and pass it along to others. 

Oh, election season! The filing deadline for this year was Friday, May 8 at 5pm. In addition to the 5 state Supreme Court justice seats, all 98 state House seats and 24 of the 49 state Senate seats are up for grabs. 

Governor Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown have filed a suit against The GEO Group, the private operator of the immigrant detention facility in Tacoma, and the GEO Group recently signed a six-month extension of their contract with ICE. I have a new piece covering this news, including concerning details about this new contract, that should be published any time now. 

Speaking of Ferguson, his tight rules on government agencies and departments’ communications with the press have led to delays on important communications to the public, such as bridge repair updates, public health vaccine guidelines, and the like. Agency officials have been repeatedly complaining about the impacts of these strict guidelines. 

The press also has less access to the Governor in general, with Ferguson holding fewer press conferences and general press availability periods. 

Recent Headlines:

 

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