WA State legislature

State millionaires income tax: a big swing among budget cuts

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Seattle News:

Last week I chatted with Hannah Sabio-Howell, who is challenging Washington State Senator Jamie Pedersen for his seat in the 43rd LD. I expect this to shape up to be an interesting race!

I also recently covered the current backlog over at the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, and how City Attorney Erika Evans is planning to adjust workflow to try to deal with it. Evans also said the office needs more money, which could be difficult given Mayor Katie Wilson recently asked all city departments to prepare a list of potential cuts for this year’s budget season. 

And I reported on SPD’s committee report in response to a budget SLI passed last November on their federal immigration enforcement policies. I used quotes liberally in this article because it was one of those meetings where I felt it was important for people to know what had been said. 

I’ll have an article out very soon about the detention facilities moratoriums in Seattle, King County, and elsewhere, as well as some more news out of the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. 

SPD has claimed that its real time crime center has tripled “the odds that a victim receives justice.” PubliCola wrote about what this means, pointing out that SPD is defining “receiving justice” as arrests made (with no details about prosecution, jail time, or how the RTCC was involved), which can also result in overpolicing.

Almost a month ago, CARE Chief Amy Barden attended a Public Safety committee meeting to reiterate what she’s been saying all along: that the new SPOG contract approved in December is preventing Seattle’s CARE team from doing their jobs. I was on vacation at the time, but Erica Barnett wrote a great article on the topic, which also links to her live reporting on Bluesky. 

Memorably, Barden was chided by Councilmember Martiza Rivera for being honest about the impacts of the new SPOG contract on the CARE team. 

“I agree there’s plenty of work to go around, and we need to work together,” Rivera said. “And so what I would like to see is working together, less accusatory language, and how can you be, you know, a person of change, to really work together to make things happen. So rather than constantly pointing out maybe the negative and what is not going well, let’s hear about what is going well and how you can help make things better.”

From her words, it sounds like Rivera doesn’t want to hear about the negative consequences of her vote on the SPOG contract, nor does she appear to want to grapple with the reality that the police are blocking the effective deployment of alternative response in Seattle.

WA State News:

The big news has been the passage of the millionaires’ income tax after over 24 hours of debate in the House. It even looks like Governor Bob Ferguson might agree to sign it! In return, lawmakers have rolled back last year’s increase on the estate tax, bringing down the top rate from 35% to 20%.

Included in the millionaires tax is a rollback of a sales tax on services passed last year, set to take effect in 2029. Because cities and counties collect sales tax (not just the state), this repeal will have an effect on local municipalities’ bottom lines, as well as Sound Transit’s finances.

The legislature also passed the state’s operating budget. There is already an $878 million budget hole expected for 2027, which will have to be dealt with next session. Legislators used the rainy day fund and a few discontinued tax breaks to try to close this year’s budget gap, which was worsened by the state having to pay large amounts on lawsuit payouts for government misconduct. The budget includes cuts to child care, Transition to Kindergarten, and local effort assistance money for public school students.  

The ALPR bill also made it through concurrence and is on its way for the governor’s signature. I’ll be writing in detail about what’s actually in the final bill and what it means for surveillance in the state.

On Flock license plate readers specifically: Flock updated its terms and conditions on February 16, 2026, making several changes. Of particular note, Flock now has a perpetual license to use Customer Data (meaning even after a specific contract ends or is canceled) and Flock is now allowed to use all Customer Data for its own product development. The terms for privacy commitments around training data have been removed from the new contract, including the commitment to never sell or share the training data with third parties. 

Other changes have been made, including making the agreement governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, after mandatory mediation and arbitration. You can read about all the changes here.

Recent Headlines:

State millionaires income tax: a big swing among budget cuts Read More »

‘A horrific stain on our state:’ on Tacoma’s Northwest ICE “Processing Center”

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Tacoma Detention Center:

I wrote about the recently filed lawsuit against the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWICP), aka the immigration detention center in Tacoma. In addition to the lawsuit, I cover other reports that have found human rights violations and abuses within the facility, going back to 2008, as well as new legislation proposed by Seattle Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck to put a year-long moratorium on new or expanded detention centers within Seattle city limits. 

It’s worth noting that The Geo Group, the company that runs the private and for-profit NWICP, is making huge amounts of money right now, reporting an almost 700% increase in profits in 2025 compared to 2024. 

It’s also worth noting I was unable to determine the status of the contract between The Geo Group and the U.S. government. The last contract was set to expire last fall. 

State Senator Yasmin Trudeau told me she didn’t see what else we could call this detention center besides a concentration camp. She brought up that detainees are often held indefinitely, with no right or ability to contact their family or for their family to know where they are. She discussed the possibility that they can be deported to a country that isn’t even their country of origin. She talked about conditions in which people are starving, have feces in their food, put in solitary confinement (which I go into more detail about in the article). She talked about the lack of due process and basic rights.  

While it is horrifying to sit with the reality of what’s happening in this camp in Tacoma, and in concentration camps being stood up and already extant across the country, I urge all of us to refuse to look away. As Trudeau told me, the NWICP is “a horrific stain on our state.”

Seattle News:

I attended DESC’s grand opening of a new permanent supportive housing building called Clover Place. It’s just south of Woodland Park on 99/Aurora Ave. N.

I also sat down and chatted with Julie Kang, who is running for the open D5 seat this November. 

I heard from the new Seattle City Attorney’s Office that City Attorney Erika Evans issued a memo officially ending her predecessor Ann Davison’s policy of seeking blanket affidavits of prejudice, which Davison had instituted to prevent elected Judge Pooja Vaddadi from hearing most criminal cases at the Seattle Municipal Court. The ACLU of Washington and Evans have jointly moved to dismiss the litigation around Davison’s policy. 

The City of Seattle settled with the family of Jaahnavi Kandula, who was killed in January 2023 when then-SPD Officer Kevin Dave ran into her at 74mph while she was in a crosswalk. The City paid the family $29 million plus the $11,000 that then-SPD Officer Daniel Auderer joked about. Both Dave and Auderer were fired from SPD.  (Note: I originally incorrectly said the payment was $110 million, which was the original amount being asked for in the lawsuit. My apologies.)

In January, the City was found negligent in the death of Antonio Mays Jr. in the CHOP in June 2020 and instructed to pay $30.5 million. 

Ben Noble of Council Central Staff is officially retiring in March and will be replaced by Lish Whitson. Whitson’s new deputy director will be Calvin Chow. 

HardPressed has been doing a steady stream of investigative reporting this month, revealing the existence of a secret CCTV camera belonging to SPD that sits on top of the 12th Avenue Arts building in Capitol Hill and another major step taken in SPD’s mission to launch its own drone program. HardPressed also documented SPD’s assistance in providing arrest records for an ICE detention. 

An Office of the Inspector General (OIG) sentinel event review was conducted for the SPD response to counterprotesters at an anti-trans rally held by an extremist group in Cal Anderson Park last spring. The report found that SPD had multiple failures in their response to the counterprotesters. The review process was cut short because DivestSPD published an article about a specific event at the rally with information from the panel, which was supposed to be confidential. 

This leak not only cut the process short, but apparently deeply upset SPD, putting the future of sentinel event reviews in question. However, PubliCola reminds us that SPD has a history of ignoring the recommendations from these reviews, which means their value remains debatable. 

As Glen Stellmacher said on Bluesky, “The specific underlying purpose of the Sentinel Event Review process is to “enhance police legitimacy.” It is not a method of accountability, that’s why it’s conducted in secret. Its whole purpose is to manufacture recommendations that enhance police legitimacy.”

WA State News:

I wrote about why civil rights, privacy, and LGBTQ+ advocates are concerned about the current societal push for age verification systems for social media platforms. In particular, I focused on HB 1834, a bill designed to protect kids from “addictive algorithms” that are common in social media platforms. There was a legal argument about whether the wording in the bill would encourage big tech companies to implement age verification systems in order to avoid liability. 

In an update on Monday, the Attorney General’s Office has said they’re going to stop trying to pass the bill this session. Because HB 2112, another bill that explicitly called for age verification, is also dead for the session, privacy advocates can take a little breath. SB 5984 seems to be avoiding pushing for age verification for now, although it still bears watching. 

Also on Monday, the Senate passed the so-called ‘Millionaires’ tax, which will now head to the House. Governor Bob Ferguson had some additional requirements for the new tax, which he’d like to see implemented before signing. 

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen and Rep. Shaun Scott–who represent the same Seattle district–had a public spat in the middle of a Stranger article. Scott said his Well Washington Fund, which would levy a statewide payroll expense tax, could be implemented and start being assessed by 2027 or possibly even late 2026. Pedersen said this wasn’t true. 

So The Stranger checked with The Employment Security Department, who said Scott was correct. Oops. Both lawmakers are up for election this November. 

State Democrats are also considering backtracking on an increase to the estate tax they passed last year, with the proposal passing the Senate on Monday. 

The new state revenue forecast came out on Monday, and in pleasant news, it’s not looking quite as terrible. The state’s revenue is up $1.855 billion from the last forecast in November. This forecast covers the bienniums of 2025-2027 and 2027-2029. 

Finally, in surveillance news, Amazon-owned Ring canceled its contract with Flock Safety after a controversial Super Bowl ad. However, it seems like their contract with Axon might still be on, at least for now. 

Recent Headlines:

About ICE:

About Everything Else:

 

‘A horrific stain on our state:’ on Tacoma’s Northwest ICE “Processing Center” Read More »

Seattle, Washington State brace for potential ICE impact

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AI, ICE, Surveillance:

During the last two weeks, I’ve written two in-depth articles. 

The first takes a look at Washington state legislators’ attempts to regulate AI this year. 

The second takes a look at state and local leaders’ response to ICE actions in Minneapolis and elsewhere. Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown said we’re now experiencing a constitutional crisis. 

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson released some responses to prepare for ICE’s possible invasion of Seattle. Notably missing from the list was anything having to do with surveillance. 

404 Media reports that a Houston-area police intelligence center has instructed police to “be as vague as permissible” about why they’re using Flock license plate reader surveillance data. These kinds of instructions will make the audits available via public record request less useful for determining if and when surveillance data is being shared for purposes such as immigration enforcement or seeking out people trying to get reproductive care.

WA State News:

Wednesday marks the policy committee cut-off for this short legislative session. Any bills that haven’t been passed out of their respective policy committees by the end of the day Wednesday will be officially dead for the session. The fiscal committee cut-off is Monday, February 9. 

The Washington State Democrats have finally dropped the bill containing their much touted “millionaires” tax. The bulk of the new tax, which wouldn’t be collected until April 2029 and is expected to generate more than $3 billion a year, would go straight to the state’s general fund, with a few tax breaks and 5% dedicated to a new fund to help counties pay for public defense costs.

Meanwhile, Governor Bob Ferguson, who used his support for this tax to paper over the budget cuts he was proposing, has come out and said he actually cannot support it after all–at least, not without changes. He wants more tax breaks and less investment in services.

Other proponents of the tax would like to see more of the new tax allocated for specific uses such as education, rather than all go into the general fund where it could be used for a mishmash of priorities.

Meanwhile, state Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen says there’s no path forward for a state-wide payroll expense (a la JumpStart) tax. Pedersen implies that big business’s dislike for this tax has played a role in his lack of support for it. 

The Washington State Supreme Court is having a big election in November, with four justice seats (out of nine) up for grabs. These races will shape the future of the court for potentially years to come.

Seattle News:

A King County jury found the City of Seattle negligent in responding to the fatal shooting of teenager Antonio Mays Jr. in the CHOP in 2020. 11 out of the 12 jurors agreed on the verdict, which is sufficient for a civil trial in Washington state. The city will be paying out $30.5 million. 

Last week, Mike Solan, who is still president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG)–although he is expected to step down later this month– responded to Mayor Wilson’s announcement of actions to prepare for ICE’s eventual descent onto Seattle. Solan wrote the following message on X: “Toothless virtue signaling rhetoric like this has already cost two people their lives. The concept of pitting two armed law enforcement agencies against each other is ludicrous, and will not happen. I will not allow SPOG members to be used as political pawns.”

PubliCola reported that CARE Chief Amy Barden has not had a single one-on-one meeting with SPD Chief Shon Barnes since he began in the position a year ago. 

Barden told PubliCola that “the sergeants who decide whether to dispatch CARE are increasingly sending out community service officers (CSOs)—civilian SPD employees without formal training in mental health care or social work—to calls that Barden says should go to CARE.”

Recent Headlines:

Seattle, Washington State brace for potential ICE impact Read More »

Two weeks after UW report, WA’s driver data is still accessible for immigration enforcement

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WA State News:

I’ve written two big stories about surveillance, personal data, and the state over the past two weeks. 

One of them covers a recent University of Washington (UW) Center of Human Rights report that found that the Washington State Department of Licensing is almost certainly still sharing personal driver data with ICE. 

Yesterday, I received an update from the UW Center of Human Rights saying they’ve been able to identify an additional six cases in which ICE or the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) queried data from the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) prior to conducting immigration arrests. At least two of these six cases are confirmed to have been civil immigration arrests. The center expects to continue discovering more such cases in the future. 

In addition, the center confirmed that the state has not taken any action to cut off CBP from accessing Washington state’s driver information from the DOL, even though the majority of relevant queries are performed by CBP. ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) also retains the ability to query the DOL’s data. 

It has been two weeks since the UW Center of Human Rights’ report was released showing the DOL’s data is still being used for civil immigration enforcement in the state of Washington. 

Angelina Godoy, founding director of the UW Center for Human Rights, was the guest on an episode of the podcast In the Meanwhile, released today. During the podcast, Godoy said, “We need to demand more of our state governments to hold them accountable to promises that they have already made. I think many state governments, and I believe Washington is one of them, are scrambling to figure out ways to keep folks safe, but this is a way they can do that. It’s a vulnerability they have known about, and it’s a decision on their part not to have taken action to date. So that’s why this is alarming.” 

My other story covers an automated license plate reader (ALPR) bill currently working its way through the legislature. It just had its first hearing on Tuesday. It’s important to note that while regulating the use of these cameras is an improvement over the complete lack of regulation that is the current status quo, privacy advocates told me it would be much safer if ALPRs were banned altogether. 

During an executive session of this bill on Thursday, a substitute bill was approved that raises the retention time of the ALPR data from 72 hours (which advocates already said was too long) to 21 days. Negotiations are ongoing, and some local privacy groups have set up an action to take.

Unsurprisingly, some people are unhappy with all the cuts proposed in Governor Bob Ferguson’s 2026 supplemental budget. Rep. Shaun Scott’s bill to impose a payroll expense tax similar to the JumpStart tax across the state received a hearing on Thursday, but we already know Ferguson is “not a big fan.” 

In other tax news, the legislature is revisiting the idea of a tax on short-term rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo, to be used by local municipalities for affordable housing and rental assistance. In favor are the aforementioned cities and counties; opposed are Airbnb operators. 

Rep. Julia Reed’s bill, HB 2098, would close a tax loophole for big tech companies and use the money to provide a fully funded higher education for Washington families earning 100% of median family income or below. It had a hearing on Wednesday, and both the University of Washington and Washington State University Pullman testified against the bill in spite of the cuts to higher education in Ferguson’s budget proposal. 

Reed noted on social media that both of those universities receive donations from Amazon and Microsoft, who are current beneficiaries of the tax loophole. 

Fewer people are buying Obamacare coverage for 2026 due to the failure of Congress to renew the enhanced federal subsidies that made such coverage more affordable. In Washington State, 277,255 people enrolled for Obamacare in 2026, compared to 291,493 in 2025–a difference of 14,238. I’ll take this opportunity to remind us all that studies show that expanding Medicaid eligibility decreases violence. Assumedly, kicking people off their insurance (or making it unaffordable) could have the opposite effect. 

PubliCola reported on a few bills that would help codify the rights of unhoused people in the state. HB 2266 would prohibit shelter and temporary housing bans and make it easier to site these housing resources, while HB 2489 would prohibit cities from passing bans on sleeping and other survival activities unless they can show they have enough available “adequate” shelter, which means shelter that wouldn’t involuntarily separate a person from their partner or their pet, for example.

PubliCola also reported on HB 1125, which would allow people to apply for resentencing. (Washington State doesn’t have parole, making this bill especially salient.) 

Seattle News:

During her first week in office, my Urbanist editor Doug Trumm and I were able to go to City Hall to interview new Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson. 

Last week I also sat down and spoke to Nilu Jenks, who is running for the Seattle City Council District 5 seat this November. 

Carolyn Bick recently published some top-notch investigative reporting in The Stranger. They uncovered a recent report from Madison’s  Office of the Independent Monitor documenting a failed body-worn camera pilot program stewarded by Chief Shon Barnes at his old police department in Madison. Critically, the report found that “Barnes had ignored City Council’s “multiple directives” for essential, specific guardrails, which likely violated state law.” 

The report specifically said the failure was Barnes’. 

This information is especially important given Barnes is overseeing the rapid expansion of SPD’s surveillance program. Seattleites may wonder: if Barnes felt comfortable disregarding many of the Madison City Council’s directives about the body worn camera pilot in 2024, will he feel similarly empowered to run Seattle’s surveillance “pilot” as he sees fit today? 

Given the current federal risks towards immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color, the stakes around surveillance are very real and very high. 

Last week, SPD’s policy office sent an unsigned directive to instruct officers on how to respond to calls about ICE. PubliCola sums up this policy succinctly: “If you see someone being grabbed off the street or attacked by ICE in Seattle, feel free to call the local police—just don’t expect them to do anything about it.”

PubliCola also reported on SPD hiring in 2025, finding that 90% of its officer hires were men.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE are looking into expanding their detention capacity in the local area. According to a 187-page draft contract dated December 2025, “The objective of this contract is to obtain comprehensive detention, transportation, and food services for ICE detainees located in the Seattle, WA area in support of the ICE ERO Seattle Field Office.”

Body camera footage from the protest at last year’s Memorial Day far-right Mayday USA event was released that shows SPD officers’ intent to respond violently to protesters. SPD Officer Matthew Didier can be heard saying, “We’re here to fuck people up now,” and “We’re going in this time with guns blazing and all our pieces in place.”

This was only a few months after the Seattle City Council passed a new ordinance giving SPD greater leeway to use less lethal weapons at protests. This legislation paved the way for Seattle’s exit from an extremely lengthy consent decree that was prolonged due to SPD’s violent behavior during the George Floyd protests of 2020. 

The Seattle LGBTQ Council sent a letter last week saying that nearly all investigations relating to misconduct at the 2025 Memorial Day protest have been completed. Out of 28 allegations against 13 officers, only two have been sustained against a single officer, who received a written reprimand. 

Finally, the board of the Seattle Social Housing Developer fired its CEO, Roberto Jimenez, last week. Tiffani McCoy of House Our Neighbors has stepped up to serve as its interim CEO. 

Recent Headlines:

Related to ICE:

Everything else:

Two weeks after UW report, WA’s driver data is still accessible for immigration enforcement Read More »

Another year, more SPOG shenanigans

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Happy New Year! This edition is going to be quick and dirty as I try to catch up after the holidays and a busy news week. You can also check out the most recent episode of The Urbanist’s podcast that dropped yesterday, in which I talk with my colleagues about Katie Wilson’s inauguration, Governor Bob Ferguson’s proposed 2026 supplemental budget, and some stories we’ll be watching in 2026.  

Seattle News:

New year, new mayor, new council, new staffers, new committee assignments. 

Oh, and a new Seattle City Attorney. I wrote about Erika Evans’s swearing in on Monday. I also write about how, on Sunday night, SPOG instigated a media tempest in a teacup about a directive from Evans’ office about public drug use and possession and diversion.

Included in that story is the news that Mike Solan will be leaving his role as president of SPOG and who he’s endorsed to take his place. 

At the end of former City Attorney Ann Davison’s term, her office quadrupled drug possession prosecutions and also stepped up public drug use prosecutions. 

Rebecca Boatwright and Brian Maxey, two of the top civilian brass at SPD who were fired by Chief Shon Barnes right after the mayoral election, have both filed tort claims against the City.

Washington State News:

I wrote about Ferguson’s 2026 supplemental budget proposal, which closes the deficit by using rainy day funds, moving some Climate Commitment Act dollars to pay for the Working Families Tax Credit, and making a bunch of cuts. 

In that article, I also discuss the proposed “millionaires” tax. I’ve heard some criticism of that name, but at the press legislative preview this morning, the name was being used constantly by reporters and lawmakers alike so it looks like we might be stuck with it.

New data shows Washington state troopers are pulling over drivers of color much more often than White drivers. Drivers of color are also more likely to be searched than White drivers. The article quotes state patrol Capt. Deion Glover talking about how the troopers are receiving training that will help, which doesn’t seem to be the case given the data. 

From the end of July to mid-October, the number of ICE immigration arrests in Washington increased substantially. 

I’ll have more early next week on ICE immigration operations and the use of state data to conduct these arrests, so keep an eye out. 

Recent Headlines:

Another year, more SPOG shenanigans Read More »

SPOG gets a great new contract while legal settlements related to SPD greatly increase

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Seattle News:

First off, I spoke (well, emailed) with Mayor-elect Katie Wilson about her vision for public safety and homelessness. Wilson has said publicly, and I think rightfully so, that for her first term, she expects to be judged on public safety and homelessness, so I tried to pull back the curtain on her thinking about those topics as she prepares to tackle a difficult job.

Relatedly, Wilson announced yesterday that she intends to keep SPD Chief Shon Barnes in his position…at least for now. My guess is that she’ll be watching to see how he performs under the new administration. In the meantime, the Capitol Hill Blog did an excellent rundown of several of Barnes’s mistakes over his first several months as SPD Chief.

Seattle City Council passed the new SPOG contract on Tuesday in a 6-3 vote, with Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Eddie Lin, and Rob Saka voting against. Unlike the last couple of SPOG contracts, I didn’t expect this vote to be unanimous, but I was surprised by Saka’s decision.

As I’ve covered before, this new SPOG contract does not notably improve police accountability in Seattle, and it also continues to prevent the CARE team, who provides civilian alternative response in Seattle, from doing their jobs. Not a fine day for Seattle. 

This week the public safety committee heard a year-end report on SPD. This year, SPD has hired 159 new officers and had 65 separations, resulting in a net increase of 94 officers. As we’ve been discussed previously, crime is down across the board, not just here in Seattle but across the country. In Seattle, this includes a decrease in homicides and shots fired. 

SPD has announced a 2025 year-to-date homicide clearance rate of 83%, which they contrast with 57% in 2024 and 49% in 2023. Because homicides were down in 2025, there were 37 victims, which was 21 or 36% fewer than the previous year. In the same time period of 2024, there were 58 victims.

Let’s do a little math, shall we? 

57% cases cleared with 58 victims = 33.06 cases cleared

83% cases cleared with 37 victims = 30.71 cases cleared

Please note the above isn’t accurate because some cases have more than one victim. But it does serve to illustrate why we should take clearance rate percentage changes with a grain of salt unless we see all the data. And we should also consider where that data comes from.  

Publicola reported on SPD’s parking enforcement officers (PEOs), whose labor contract with the City is in mediation and who are currently staging a “work slowdown.” Long-time readers will remember that the PEOs were moved from SPD to SDOT in 2020 in one of the only ways in which SPD was “defunded.” While the defunding of that move might not have been particularly meaningful, given the money was simply moved from one department to another for the same purpose, the switch in attitudes of PEOs might have been a true improvement. However, PEOs were moved back to SPD in 2023 in a win for SPD, which tends to want to retain as many functions (and as large a budget) as possible. PubliCola reminded me that the move back was intended to improve hiring and retention, which surprise, surprise, hasn’t panned out. 

PubliCola also reported that SPD has far overrun its overtime budget this year, another circumstance that should come as no surprise to long-time readers. 

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report in August on claims and lawsuits involving SPD, covering a period from 2019-2023. A few key takeaways:

  • Between 2014 and 2023, 172 lawsuits were filed involving SPD. Police action (61%) and police negligence involving the fleet (19%) were the most common. According to the report, fleet claims are “for incidents involving SPD vehicles, such as minor vehicle collisions or allegations of SPD drivers failing to operate a vehicle with due care for the safety of the public.”
  • Between 2021 and 2023, the City paid about $13 million in settlements involving SPD. In contrast, between 2014 and 2020, the City paid about $6 million in settlements involving SPD. 

Surveillance news:

Mountlake Terrace canceled their contract with Flock Safety for license plate readers, and Olympia suspended their Flock contract. 

Spokane has been using their Flock license plate readers to surveil protesters, which you might recall was another group of folks civil rights organizations and concerned citizens pointed out would be targeted and harmed by increased surveillance. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has found many agencies across the country have been using similar surveillance on protesters.  

A Wisconsin sheriff’s department is using incredibly vague search terms while searching the Flock license plate reader database, a move that is likely to continue to spread as law enforcement agencies attempt to evade transparency around how they’re using these surveillance tools. 

The ACLU is pushing a new bill in the state legislature this year that would regulate the use of license plate readers in the state. I’ll be writing more about this bill, probably in January. 

A clarification: I’ve seen an increase lately in folks referring to “Flock cameras” to mean any kind of surveillance camera. Seattle, for example, does not have a contract for any Flock cameras, although it does have license plate readers and CCTV cameras. So when in doubt about what kind of camera, it’s always okay to simply say “surveillance camera” instead of specifying the brand name. 

King County and Washington State news:

The King County office of the ombuds has taken over the investigation of grants given by King County’s Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) to several community organizations for four different youth programs. The investigation began after an audit earlier this year.

Crisis Connections, the crisis care center in Kirkland, remains underutilized a year after opening. Their involuntary commitment unit is often full (which isn’t a required part of a King County crisis care center), but the center has served close to 4,000 unique patients in a bit over a year, while King County estimated each center should be able to serve 14,000 unique patients per year. 

Connections recently received the grant to run the crisis care center in Capitol Hill, and The Seattle Times reports they were one of three providers who applied to do so. 

At the state level, lawmakers are gearing up for next year’s legislative session in Olympia. In addition to the license plate reader bill referenced above, lawmakers are bringing forward a bill to ban face coverings for law enforcement officers. The federal government is suing California over a similar law, and if the federal government should succeed in their suit, the Washington law in question would only apply to state and local law enforcement, rendering it much less useful. 

As Washington State faces a budget deficit, Governor Bob Ferguson has said his upcoming budget proposal will balance that deficit with cuts instead of new revenue. But that declaration hasn’t stopped other lawmakers from making their own progressive revenue proposals:

  • Rep. Shaun Scott (D-43, Seattle) has proposed progressive revenue similar to Seattle’s JumpStart payroll tax, which is estimated to bring in over $2 billion per year. Scott wants to spend the funds on education, health care, and human service programs (planning for upcoming federal cuts in spending). 
  • Scott is also proposing to end a tax break for big banks in order to invest in the state’s wildfire mitigation fund, which was cut 50% earlier this year.
  • Rep. Julia Reed (D-36, Seattle) has proposed removing a tax rate cap on big tech companies in order to fund more higher education investments. 
  • Democrat lawmakers are interested in making changes to a new retail sales tax to reduce its impact on school districts. Republicans want to repeal the tax altogether. 
  • I’m hearing more and more rumblings about a state income tax. Here is the latest rumbling, in which House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon is quoted as saying an income tax isn’t something lawmakers should “shy away” from. 

Recent Headlines:

SPOG gets a great new contract while legal settlements related to SPD greatly increase Read More »

Will Katie Wilson be a Sea Change for Seattle?

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Election News:

It feels like for the last week, it’s been all Seattle mayoral election, all the time! But it looks like Katie Wilson squeaked out the win in what is likely to be a sea change for Seattle. 

In other Seattle election results, Alexis Mercedes Rinck handily won reelection as a councilmember, and Dionne Foster beat incumbent Sara Nelson as the other city-wide councilmember. Eddie Lin beat Adonis Ducksworth for the D2 council seat. 

For Seattle City Attorney, Erika Evans beat Republican incumbent Ann Davison. I chatted with Evans on the phone a few days after the election, and we discussed her vision for the office. 

The new (and much larger) Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise (FEPP) levy passed, as did the B&O tax restructure championed by Rinck. The spending plan for the FEPP dollars will be decided next year, including whether any of those dollars will go to police in schools, so that will be something that bears watching.

In King County, Girmay Zahilay will take over as King County Executive, beating out Claudia Balducci, who will remain on the King County Council. Zahilay is vacating a seat on the council, so look for a replacement to be appointed soon. Otherwise, on the King County Council, it was an election for the incumbents, with the open seat in District 5 going to Steffanie Fain. 

I also want to give a shout-out to Burien! Their progressive slate of councilmember candidates all won their races.

You might also want to check out my colleague Ryan Packer’s article about 6 election bellweathers, which include a city council race in Bellevue in which incumbent Conrad Lee has finally been unseated after… 32 years.  

Seattle News:

I wrote an article about Mayor Bruce Harrell’s response to the threat of escalating ICE enforcement and the possibility of President Donald Trump sending the National Guard to Seattle. I discuss Harrell’s proposed law enforcement mask ban and Rinck’s proposed Statement of Legislative Intent that will require the Seattle Police Department to report on their implementation plan for the two executive orders. 

This is a tough one because looking around the country, it looks like the most impactful/successful resistance to ICE is coming directly from the streets. So far, responses from city and state governments have been less productive. 

Budget Chair Dan Strauss announced his 2026 budget balancing package. There was enough money for him to provide funding for each councilmember to address at least some of their priorities. The councilmembers will be voting on amendments to the balancing package this Friday, November 14. The amendments have not been released to the public as of publication of this newsletter, giving very little time for review.

The final budget vote is expected to be on Friday, November 21. 

There’s been a shakeup at SPD, with Chief Shon Barnes firing two of his top civilian command staff members: Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey and General Counsel Rebecca Boatright. It is unclear if the Mayor’s Office was involved in this decision in any way. This might mark a preference to move away from civilianization at SPD, a position that would certainly make the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) happy. 

Barnes also named Captain Jim Britt as the new commander of the East Precinct. Britt was formerly in charge of SPD’s real time crime center, and I haven’t yet heard who will be taking his place in such a highly technical role. 

It looks like it might not be just SPD that has a problem mistreating their women employees. The Seattle Fire Department’s (SFD) former head of human resources, Sarah Lee, has filed a $2.5 million claim against the department. Lee, who was fired in September, says she was let go in retaliation for standing up to workplace misconduct and discrimination against women in the department. Her claim contains details of 14 different allegations.

The Seattle Times wrote, “Lee’s filing speaks of a department that broadly mistreats women.”

Lastly, this afternoon, city council voted to confirm Bonnie Glenn as the new director of the Office of Police Accountability OPA). This is a bit surprising as in the past, the public has been able to hear from finalist candidates for the OPA director position and submit their questions to potentially be answered. This time there’s been no public engagement that I’m aware of and the appointment is simply being rushed through. 

However, the appointment of Glenn is only for a one-year term (until the end of 2026) to complete the term of former director Gino Betts. Wilson will be able to select her own candidate if she so chooses for a term beginning in 2027. 

My journalist colleague Glen Stellmacher has some direct and concerning experience with Glenn in her role as the interim OPA director. He says he had to file a bar complaint against Glenn before she would begin an investigation about an SPD intelligence officer who “knowingly lied to investigators about SPD’s use of informants during the 2020 protests.”

King County and WA State News:

King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda has a few interesting addendums to the 2026-2027 county budget that made it into the budget striker. One proviso will require the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO) to provide data on reoffending rates for youth subject to traditional prosecution. This data will allow a more meaningful analysis of the recidivism rates for youth participating in diversion programs. 

Mosqueda has a second proviso that will require the creation of a master list of surveillance technology being used by any King County department. She is interested in such a list as her office works to develop a surveillance technology ordinance for the county. 

On the state level, the Senate Democratic Caucus is discussing the idea of a “millionaires tax.” The proposal being discussed would levy a 9.9% tax on adjusted gross income over $1 million. The Democrats would have to pass this new tax during an election year, however, and Governor Bob Ferguson has proven to be resistant thus far to passing progressive taxes, having quashed the much-discussed wealth tax earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Senator June Robinson, the Democrat’s chief budget writer, has told her colleagues not to put in any new requests for funding for 2026. Since Ferguson approved the state’s budget in the spring, revenue forecasts have been grim and there is likely to be a large shortfall to deal with in the short legislative session this winter. 

Ferguson will submit his budget proposal in December in advance of the legislative session in January.

I do have an article coming out very soon (maybe tomorrow morning?) with more about license plate surveillance being used for immigration enforcement across Washington state, a recent Public Records Act lawsuit, and more, so keep an eye out for that. 

Recent Headlines:

 

Will Katie Wilson be a Sea Change for Seattle? Read More »

Seattle City Council votes in favor of unavoidable advertising in public spaces and weakening their own ethics code

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Seattle News:

Let’s start by talking about a couple of my recent pieces. First, I covered SPD asking to obtain StarChase GPS surveillance technology. Noteworthy in this piece is the public safety committee meeting during which this technology was discussed, in which SPD Captain James Britt said he didn’t know something that would be very difficult not to know if you were in fact in charge of the project of obtaining the StarChase technology for SPD. 

Second, I covered the recent community safety town hall led by Councilmember Rob Saka to address gun violence in the High Point, Snake Hill, and North Delridge neighborhoods. Aside from no city official advocating for investment in gun violence prevention programs in these neighborhoods, there is also an open question about why it’s been taking Seattle City Light so long to repair streetlights in High Point compared to other, wealthier neighborhoods. 

Earlier this afternoon the Council met to discuss the proposal to weaken their ethics rules and the proposal to install advertising kiosks in several Seattle neighborhoods, including downtown, Ballard, and West Seattle. 

The advertising kiosk resolution passed its committee vote 5-0 (committee members are Councilmembers Nelson, Kettle, Hollingsworth, Rivera, and Solomon). 

The ethics legislation passed its committee vote with Rivera and Solomon voting in favor, and Nelson, Kettle, and Hollingsworth abstaining. It will receive a full council vote on Tuesday, June 3 at 2pm. 

Mayor Bruce Harrell has announced his intention to confirm SPD Chief Shon Barnes in his role as police chief, at the same time as Barnes published an op-ed in The Seattle Times about “Seattle-Centric policing.” 

Meanwhile SPD has just committed to spending almost $6 million for yet another ad recruitment campaign.

DivestSPD published an important look at falling crime in Seattle in 2024 and thus far in 2025. Here is a relevant excerpt:

“Crime was way down in 2024 and continues to fall in 2025. Most folks consider that a good thing — unless they’re operating a protection racket that manufactures consent for raises by scaring the public with sensational crime stories. SPOG has been so bereft of good material that it has resorted to using “This is Seattle” to comment on incidents in other cities. According to the Seattle crime dashboard, the violent and property crime rates in 2024 were both lower than in 2018, when SPD had 400 more officers. These trends are continuing in 2025.” 

In June, Seattle will be launching a new “ambassador” program in the CID similar to that already in place in downtown, funded by $500,000 from the city and $500,000 from the Asian American Foundation over two years, with three ambassadors patrolling the area from 2-10pm.

Harrell also announced Seattle’s “summer safety strategy,” which includes limiting many park hours from 4am to 10:30pm and installing a gate at the beloved Gas Works Park, as well as increasing SPD patrols.

There is controversy over King County’s proposal to site one of the five new crisis care centers in Capitol Hill on Broadway and Union. Many residents and businesses signed a letter opposing the location. The proposal should go in front of the King County Council sometime this summer for approval. 

Earlier this year, a King County inquest was held about the SPD killing of Iosia Faletogo at the end of 2018. Howard Gale wrote that this “marked the first time in history an inquest juror found that an SPD officer engaged in criminal conduct.” He also details the biases and confusion built into the county’s inquest process. 

The Urbanist also reported that Inspector General Lisa Judge, who runs Seattle’s Office of the Inspector General, appears to have been paying for private parking with City funds. 

WA State News:

In better news: in 2024, Washington State reported the largest decline in drug overdose deaths in almost a decade, a 12% drop from 2023. Even so, nearly 3,200 Washingtonians still died from an overdose in 2024. Nationwide, overdose deaths dropped 27%. 

Governor Bob Ferguson finally signed the state’s operating budget this week. Here is a list of his vetoes, which are much less extensive than feared but do include programs like a study comparing domestic violence intervention models, an association to coordinate opioid treatment and prevention services, a nonprofit that operates a teen case management and housing connections support program, and grants to entities that provide digital navigator services, devices, and subscriptions, among many others. These changes remove $25 million from the state’s budget, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the total being spent. 

Ferguson also signed the bill that requires Washingtonians to get a permit in order to buy a gun and a bill that gives unemployment benefits to striking workers.

Ferguson signed the bill providing $100 million for a grant program to hire more police officers. It allows the grant funds to be used for other purposes besides hiring more police, including peer counselors, behavioral health co-responders, crisis intervention training, and community assistance programs. 

The legislature did not address the crowding issue at Green Hill School juvenile detention center: “While a new facility opening this year in Aberdeen could offer some relief, the failure to pass significant legislation on the issue means Green Hill is on track to continue housing dozens more people than it is designed to safely hold.” 

Brian Heywood has filed five new state-wide initiatives this spring. He wants to limit annual property tax increases to 0.5% and for all property to be valued at 50 percent of its true and fair value in money and assessed on that basis; he wants more money for homeschooling and private schools at the cost of public education; he wants to ban trans girls from school sports; and he wants to restore the parents’ bill of rights that was amended during the legislative session. What a laundry list of conservative ideas!

Recent Headlines:

Seattle City Council votes in favor of unavoidable advertising in public spaces and weakening their own ethics code Read More »

New Seattle councilmembers want to weaken their ethics code as the US is sliding into authoritarianism

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Seattle News:

Well, Seattle has been buzzing with news these last two weeks! Let’s dive right in.

On April 28, SPD and the Mayor’s Office held a press conference to tout how many officers SPD has hired so far this year. The Mayor’s Office claims the number is 60, with another 160 they say are going through background checks. 

At the press conference, which featured a few rows of the new recruits, there appeared to be one woman recruit present, while all the others were men. As PubliCola reported, 5 of the 60 new hires in 2025 are women, while last year SPD hired 12 women. PubliCola also reported that of the 24 officers who have left so far in 2025, five of those were women, meaning a net gain of zero women officers since the beginning of the year. 

SPD still doesn’t appear to be a good place to work if you’re a woman, an issue I cover in my story about former SPD Chief of Staff Jamie Tompkins, who alleges SPD was a sexually hostile work environment. 

President of the police union SPOG, Mike Solan, isn’t happy either, saying the higher SPD hiring numbers represent a “lessening of standards.” About SPD, Jason Rantz wrote, “nearly 30% of the department is over 50 years old. Nearly 26% are 51 years old or older. At 53, depending on the length of service, officers are eligible for retirement.”

Meanwhile, two more Black SPD officers are suing the department for racial discrimination. And attorney James Bible told the Seattle Times that “there are more cases coming.”

PubliCola has been doing a huge amount of helpful reporting in the public safety space recently, including covering Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison’s new “drug prosecution alternative,” which appears to be a less good version of the community court she shut down a couple years ago; SPOG suing SPD over SPD’s inability to fulfill public records requests; and Seattle Municipal Court Judge Pooja Vaddadi filing a formal complaint with the Washington State Bar Association against Davison and former criminal division chief (and now the Mayor’s Chief Public Safety Officer) Natalie Walton-Anderson for deciding to use a procedural loophole to disqualify Vaddadi from hearing criminal cases in her courtroom.

Meanwhile, Councilmember Cathy Moore has introduced an ethics bill that would weaken the ethics rules for city councilmembers. If passed, councilmembers would no longer be required to recuse themselves if they have a possible financial conflict of interest. Instead they would be required to simply disclose the possible conflict. 

The City’s head of ethics, Wayne Barnett, supports the change. Interestingly, rumor has it that this ethics change is a precursor to Moore introducing new legislation that would gut renters rights protections that are currently in place in the city. Both Councilmember Martiza Rivera and Councilmember Mark Solomon are currently landlords who would have to recuse themselves from a vote on that legislation should the ethics rules not be changed. It is possible Moore would still have the votes to strip renters of protections just as the Trump administration is making cuts that are likely to increase the rate of homelessness in Seattle, even with the two recusals, but it would make for a tighter vote. 

Why a sitting councilmember would want to join Trump in worsening the city’s homelessness crisis in the first place is an interesting question. Why she would choose to weaken the longstanding ethics rules governing city council (in place since 1980) right when many political scientists believe the United States is moving into some form of authoritarianism is another good question. 

Mayoral candidate Katie Wilson wrote an op-ed about what a bad idea weakening the ethics rules is, and it sounds like most, if not all, current D2 city council candidates oppose the bill as well. Solomon was appointed to his position representing D2 until an election can be held this November.

Council President Sara Nelson’s Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee first took up this ethics bill on Thursday afternoon, although no vote was taken at that time.

Finally, to end on some promising news, the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) has been trying a new, less painful method of administering buprenorphine to help people addicted to fentanyl. Early results show that more than 70% of people trying this new course of treatment are making it to their second month of treatment, which is more than triple DESC’s previous numbers. More studies are needed, and cost could be a limiting factor, but this could mark a really helpful breakthrough in treating fentanyl addiction.

King County News:

Shannon Braddock is now officially the King County Executive until the elections in November, and she has rolled out a “200 Day Plan.” Top of the list is enacting the 0.1% “public safety” sales tax just approved by the state legislature and establishing an emergency reserves fund to help the county deal with continued federal shenanigans. 

At a Health, Housing, and Human Services committee meeting on Tuesday, county budget director Dwight Dively gave another of his updates on said federal shenanigans. He said one of the things we’re seeing now is an inability to move projects forward because the federal government employees and/or infrastructure no longer exist to do so. The county is also losing federal workers at various of its agencies. 

King County filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for adding “unlawful” conditions to previously approved federal grants, which has generally meant insisting the grantee follow every single one of Trump’s executive orders, many of which are probably illegal. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration in the case on Wednesday.

Also at the committee meeting was a presentation on an old 2022 report on wage theft that somehow never received a committee presentation until now,  as well as an analysis of impediments to fair housing choice. 

At the Law and Justice committee meeting on Wednesday, the committee received presentations on an audit of asset forfeitures by the King County Sheriff’s Office (summary: the the records of said asset forfeitures are a mess, the electronic system is incomplete and so the office is basically relying on paper records, and the seizure notices are both hard to understand and only offered in English.) You can read the entire report here. 

Also presented at the meeting were the Department of Public Defense’s annual report for 2024 and a briefing about the inquest program. 

WA State News:

I wrote a wrap-up piece about the Washington state legislative session in which I primarily focused on the state’s 2025-2027 operating budget, including which new taxes and which new cuts were included. Governor Bob Ferguson has until May 17 to sign or veto the budget. 

Meanwhile, Ferguson is being pressured to veto an estimated $1.86 billion of new tax revenue passed in the Democrat’s package.

The Washington state Supreme Court upheld the legislature’s ban on high capacity magazines this week. 

We also got a piece from the Washington State Standard about why police accountability didn’t have a good year in the state legislature, which basically boils down to this: because it didn’t suit the people in power to move anything. 

In the article, we receive this confusing gem: “Meanwhile, fears of rising crime have emboldened opposition to policies believed to hinder officers trying to do their jobs. In 2023, the last year with available statewide data, the state saw a significant decrease in year-over-year violent crimes after years of increases, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.”

So fears of rising crime, which the data shows is not happening, is what is keeping the legislature from wanting to pass police accountability legislation. Gotcha. 

Recent Headlines:

New Seattle councilmembers want to weaken their ethics code as the US is sliding into authoritarianism Read More »

We’re all waiting to find out exactly how austere the new WA state budget will be

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Seattle News:

Last week I dived into the recent Seattle Auditor’s Office report on gun violence patterns in Seattle for The Urbanist.

At the public safety committee meeting on April 8, Chief Innovation Officer Andrew Myerberg presented on the search for a new Office of Police Accountability (OPA) director. The search committee consists of Councilmember Bob Kettle, SPD Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis, CPC co-chair Joel Merkel, and Lisa Daugaard, the co-executive director of PDA. The first consideration date for candidates is today, 4/25, interviews of finalists will be all day 5/16, and meetings with stakeholders (the three police accountability bodies and SPD) will be on 5/22. 

Mayor Bruce Harrell expects to announce his hiring decision sometime in early June. As with the most recent police chief search, there is no public engagement scheduled around this hiring decision. 

There will be a special public safety committee meeting on Tuesday, April 29 to discuss Seattle’s police accountability system, including moving forward with the appointment of Eci Ameh as Executive Director of the Seattle Community Police Commission (CPC).

As has been previously reported by Guy Oron in Real Change, homeless encampment sweeps have escalated a large amount during Harrell’s tenure as mayor. And now The Seattle Times is even reporting on the story, writing, “To hide from the city’s escalating pace of encampment removals, homeless people say they are hiding deeper in the woods, where assaults, overdoses and emergencies can go unnoticed. Some say they’ve given up on setting up a tent altogether, leaving them less visible but more vulnerable to the elements and predators.”

Seattle has also lost 130 shelter spaces since 2022. Existing spaces are full (95%, which accounts for time spent in turnover). 

PubliCola reported that there have only been five SOAP orders issued since the law was passed more than seven months ago. Four of the five orders were against men who were indigent (making less than $24,000/year or showing they can’t afford an attorney). 

PubliCola also provides important context: “At a time of mass deportations and crackdowns on even legal immigrants, it’s also noteworthy that, according to public defenders, most of the men who get busted for patronizing street sex workers are immigrants. White men have more discreet ways of buying sex, and they’re more likely to be represented by private attorneys, rather than overworked public defenders.”

Meanwhile, in an Urbanist op-ed, Nathan Rouse, who is a candidate for Seattle City Attorney, comes out strong against cash bail for nonviolent misdemeanors. It’s worth reading what he has to say, and he includes many links for those interested in learning more. I’m curious what his opponents think about bail reform and whether this will be an issue on which the candidates differ. 

King County/WA State News:

My latest article is out at The Urbanist today, looking at the intersection between what’s going on with the state budget right now and how that will impact King County, with a particular focus on the bill that would have lifted the property tax revenue growth cap and the bill that would allow municipalities to raise the sales tax 0.1% as an additional “public safety” tax. 

In a letter delivered today, King County Councilmembers Girmay Zahilay and Rod Dembowski ask Executive Shannon Braddock to propose this new sales tax. Last I heard, neither councilmember had signed the letter to Ferguson asking for him to reconsider his resistance to the property tax cap lift. 

It should be an exciting few days in Olympia as this legislative session is slated to end this Sunday, April 27. A few news tidbits in the meantime: the bill to create a permit-to-purchase program for guns has been passed by both chambers and will become law if Ferguson signs it. It looks like the Senate might be creating the wealth tax “test balloon” that Ferguson indicated might be acceptable to him. And Senate Democrats have proposed a 55% cut to abortion access funding in the state, right at a time when medical agencies providing these services are under severe attack from the federal government. The House Democrats have preserved this funding, and we’ll find out soon if they prevail in this matter. 

King County’s 2024 Point in Time Count was released this week, saying 16,868 people experienced homelessness on any given night in 2024. This is 26% higher than in 2022. Homelessness continues to disproportionately affect communities of color, including Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic people. 

There are more than two people per every shelter space in King County, and in North King County, this number is much worse at 9.6 people per bed. You can read more about it at PubliCola.

Meanwhile, PubliCola also reported that the current state budget cuts funds for former Governor Jay Inslee’s right-of-way program, which resolves encampments on state-owned rights of way through extensive outreach. 

National News:

Jeff Asher, a nationally recognized crime data analyst, released an essay announcing that crime is down down down. His own words: “All we can say with certainty is that major crime — as counted by the FBI — almost certainly declined quite a lot in the first quarter of 2025. These would be record levels of decline for most crime types if they held up for the full year.”

I’ll add my usual disclaimer about taking crime data with at least some salt.

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We’re all waiting to find out exactly how austere the new WA state budget will be Read More »