WA State

Updates on the U.S. surveillance state

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Local News:

I wrote a piece about Seattle’s efforts to pull together a coordinated gun violence prevention strategy, which took some doing given the focus on Chief Barnes’s resignation during the time I was trying to research and write it. 

I also wrote about new Seattle legislation to ban algorithmic price discrimination, or surveillance pricing based on personal information, for Seattleites buying groceries. The committee vote on amendments to the ordinance will be on September 18. 

Speaking of Seattle’s police chief saga, here are a couple of interviews with interim Chief Andre Sayles. PubliCola reported on how much time Barnes spent out of the office (almost 40% of the time this year) and on how much his payout will be. And two of SPD’s command staff brought in by Barnes are leaving SPD.

Meanwhile, councilmembers are still angry that the press conference after the Bite of Seattle shooting was delayed for five hours, and the Mayor’s Office has asked the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to conduct an independent after-action review about communications. The review won’t be completed until mid-December.

In other news, there’s another hunger strike at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, and the conditions there continue to be terrible and shocking. ICE will be spending up to $20 million on torture gloves that deliver a painful shock at the press of a button. 

In better news, the Washington State Department of Revenue has performed a new analysis on the millionaires tax and thinks it will bring in more revenue than expected. The new estimate expects $3.1 billion in its first year (instead of $2.7 billion originally predicted) and $8.3 billion in the 2029-2031 biennium (instead of $6.9 billion).

Surveillance news:

The Community Not Cameras coalition toured SPD’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) this week, and it didn’t go so well. Coalition members left with many concerns in spite of a Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce poll that shows strong support for cameras. Reading the questions asked in the poll is instructive as to how seriously to take it.

Flock Safety’s PR disaster continues, with 404 Media reporting that they pitched a plan to put their license plate readers in the vehicles of Uber and Lyft drivers. In fact, the press around Flock has gotten so bad they’ve announced some changes, including shortening their standard data retention window from 30 days to 7 days. Their efforts at damage control aren’t stopping many cities from switching from Flock license plate readers to Axon license plate readers, which doesn’t permanently address the concerns many residents have about these cameras and the expanding surveillance state. 

Today Wired published a new story reporting that Flock has built an AI system/tool that can identify drivers and track vehicles by their patterns of movement alone, facilitated by the large network of Flock cameras across the country. It appears that the tool is currently in the testing phase. As Wired wrote:

“Privacy and legal experts say Flock’s tools already raise serious constitutional concerns by giving police broad, often warrantless access to a vast record of people’s movement. But the prompts WIRED examined go further, turning a tool for finding a known vehicle into one that casts suspicion on drivers based on where and how often they drive, regardless of whether they are wanted for a crime.”

Meanwhile, the federal government has gotten in on the act by monitoring viral anti-Flock social media posts and surveilling protest gatherings and meetings. And DHS has been using Clearview AI facial recognition to help infiltrate activist groups.

Google’s AI Overview, while gutting newsrooms left and right, is spreading false information about the amount of valuable gold and copper that are inside Flock cameras, thereby accidentally encouraging users to vandalize the cameras for profit.

And people are going around cutting down and destroying Flock cameras, acts of civil disobedience that appear to be receiving significant public support.

Andrea Pitzer, who wrote a book about the global history of concentration camps, wrote an analysis that looks at what the new electric-shock gloves being obtained by ICE and the proliferation of Flock license plate reader cameras tells us about how the concentration camp regime/institutionalization of the police state in the US is going

Housekeeping:

I’m going to be taking some time off starting next week, so you won’t be hearing from me for a little while. But never fear, I’ll be back on the beat in time to cover Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s proposed budget. 

Recent Headlines:

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Washington State Supreme Court justice races remain ones to watch in November

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Washington State Temple of Justice. Photo by Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The initial results of the Washington state primaries shed some light on how the races are shaping up for the five all-important state Supreme Court justice positions up for grabs in November. While later returns tend to favor progressives, the early numbers make clear that at least some of these races will not have a foregone conclusion in the general election. 

These justice races are always tricky because candidates are not allowed to say how they would rule on specific questions. Instead, they can be asked more general doctrinal questions, and their past records can be combed through. Most observers rely on a combination of endorsements and contributions to determine in which lane a candidate is running. 

There is already big money in these justice races, with candidates reporting raising almost $2.5 million so far. And that number is sure to grow in the next three months.

As I reported this spring, money spent on state Supreme Court justice races across the country has surged over the last few years, while the use of dark money in elections has greatly increased since the Citizens United ruling in 2010. 

For the two candidates appointed by Governor Bob Ferguson since he began his term, there is an assumption – whether warranted or not – that they would likely rule in favor of the millionaires tax, which Ferguson has staunchly supported. The millionaires tax would levy a 9.9% tax on incomes above $1 million, and should it survive the legal and electoral challenges against it, it would be likely to be seen as a cornerstone progressive achievement for Ferguson and the state Democratic party.   

The safest justice seat in this election cycle is clearly that of incumbent Debra Stephens, who has served on the court for almost 20 years. With a commanding 54.53% of the initial drop, Stephens is running far ahead of her closest challenger, Todd Bloom, who garnered about 27% of the vote. 

For justice position 5, Ferguson appointee Theo Angelis is neck and neck with more conservative Dave Larson: Angelis has 34% of the early vote and Larson a bit more than 32%. However, candidate Sharonda Amamilo, who is considered to be more progressive than Angelis, received 21% of the vote. It’s difficult to imagine an Amamilo voter pivoting to vote for Larson in the general election, which means the results of this race might rest more on turn-out. 

It’s worth remembering that Larson lost narrowly to state Justice Sal Mungia in 2024. Mungia, who was backed by progressives, won by only 0.7 points or about 20,000 votes. 

While Angelis has raised $350,000, Larson isn’t that far behind at $296,000. 

On the surface, the justice position 1 race looks pretty clear-cut, with recent Ferguson appointee Colleen Melody taking 51.20% of the vote. However, third place candidate Laura Christensen Colberg, who currently has 18.19% of the vote, ran on an explicit anti-appointee platform, which means many of her voters may instead opt for second place candidate Scott Edwards, who currently has 30.31% of the vote. If so, this race could end up being much closer than it currently looks. 

On the other hand, Melody has currently raised more than double the donations of Edwards, which should help her maintain her lead. 

Conservatives have criticized the two appointee candidates for state Supreme court, calling out the electoral benefit granted by their appointments leading to “incumbent” status as well as their perceived political ties to Ferguson. We can expect to see more attacks along these lines going forward into November.  

The justice position 3 race, with no incumbents, is much too close to call. We have three candidates with similar numbers of votes; conservative David Stephens with 35.79% of the vote is followed closely by both candidates to his left, Jaime Hawk with 32.92% and Mike Diaz with 30.94%. In a Stephens-Diaz match-up, it seems likely many of Hawk’s voters would go to Diaz, but in a Stephens-Hawk match-up, it’s possible some of Diaz’s voters would opt for Stephens instead. 

Both Hawk and Diaz – at $218,000 and $275,000 respectively – have significantly out-raised Stephens, who has only raised $40,000 thus far. 

Finally, we have justice position 4, which with only two candidates, didn’t go through the primary selection process. Moderate candidate Sean O’Donnell is facing progressive candidate Ian Birk, and both candidates have accumulated large war chests, with O’Donnell at $281,000 and Birk at $364,000. 

At one point, Full Court Press, a dark-money group that focuses on supporting and recruiting conservative judge candidates in Washington state, operates under the umbrella of Project 42, one of whose founders is Brian Heywood. Let’s Go Washington, Heywood’s political action committee (PAC), is bankrolling a ballot initiative against the millionaires tax as well as two anti-transgender initiatives.  

Full Court Press featured Larson and O’Donnell on a now-deleted “prospects” page on their website. O’Donnell told me back in April that he had asked to be removed from the website as soon as he learned about it, but the association with the conservative group might still impact his chances in the general. 

The current Washington state Supreme Court is considered to be one of the United States’ most progressive – especially when it comes to matters of civil rights – and most influential courts. While the legal question of the millionaires tax is expected to be heard in front of the court in the next year or so, that is only the tip of the iceberg when considering the large impact the court has on the lives of Washingtonians. 

The court is one of the most crucial institutions safeguarding the state from what many see as an increasingly threatening federal government. 

Articles on the Bite of Seattle shooting and SPD Chief Shon Barnes’ resignation:

Recent Headlines:

 

Washington State Supreme Court justice races remain ones to watch in November Read More »

SPD police chief loses his cool

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Seattle News:

I’ve been closely covering the debate around universal school meals for students in Seattle, which you can read about here and here. Right now it looks like Seattle might get both universal school meals starting this fall and a voucher-based food program for weekends and school breaks. Today, Mayor Katie Wilson and the Seattle City Council released a joint statement indicating both branches of government are on board with the plan.

The City Council will be voting on a proposal to fund the universal school meals through the general fund on August 4 as part of their mid-year supplemental budget deliberations. 

I’ve seen a lot of speculation that one or more Seattle city councilmembers might have purposefully blocked Mayor Katie Wilson’s universal school meals proposal in order to tank her political capital and have a more successful mayoral run against her in 2029. I cannot say what lies in the hearts of the councilmembers, but something else to consider is the fact that the council isn’t particularly politically aligned with the mayor and might not be worried about crossing her in the same way they might have feared crossing Mayor Bruce Harrell, who helped many of them get elected. 

In the last few weeks, I also wrote about both the D5 Seattle City Council seat race and the 46th LD state representative race.

I’m sure you’re all aware of the tragic shooting at the Seattle Center during the Bite of Seattle food festival on Sunday. PubliCola reported that SPD Chief Shon Barnes was out of town at the time of the shooting, and indeed, was scheduled to be out of town until mid-August, in spite of summer tending to be a time of increased violence overall, and gun violence in particular. 

At a press conference about the shooting on Monday, Barnes snapped at a reporter from The South Seattle Emerald who was asking about his traveling habits, and his chief of staff Alex Ricketts had to step between Barnes and the reporter and escort Barnes away. You can watch the video clip here.

At another press conference today, Barnes was asked about the incident with the reporter and said it merely illustrated his passion for being a police officer. Someone has filed a complaint with the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) about the incident. Barnes was also asked again about his travel schedule, a question he tried to dismiss as quickly as possible.

Other News:

ICE is still getting Washington state data to assist in their immigration enforcement efforts, according to KUOW, meaning the state’s sanctuary law isn’t being fully enforced. This is in spite of the state denying tens of thousands of requests from ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and Customs & Border Patrol. According to KUOW’s article:

““The records we’re getting show that the rejection doesn’t stop them from getting the data,” said Angelina Godoy, director of the UW Center for Human Rights. “They get rejected using one [Originating Agency Identifier] and then just submit their request under another one. There are thousands of still-open [Originating Agency Identifiers] they can use.””

Leaked video from the San Francisco Police Department’s drone program has shown one of the privacy risks of this surveillance technology. Ben Werdmuller, the senior director of technology at ProPublica, wrote an essay on his personal site about the more inherent problems with such ubiquitous surveillance. Furthermore, Werdmuller wrote that the police drones in San Francisco have had no impact on crime. 

Meanwhile, LAPD announced they will be letting their contract with Flock Safety expire. As 404 Media reported, “Notably, the decision came after an audit of ALPR technology found that, in a two-month period, the LAPD had improperly “investigated” 161 people whose cars were flagged as stolen in the LAPD’s ALPR system but were not actually stolen.” Here is that audit. 

Last week, the Renton City Council voted to continue to pause their use of Flock Safety stationary license plate readers in the city. However, they voted to resume use of in-vehicle license plate readers (these readers are from Axon, not Flock). It became clear during the councilmember discussion that in practice, the in-vehicle license plate readers will also not be used at present since they are not compliant with the new state law regulating the use of license plate readers (the same issue faced by the City of Seattle). While a technical fix might be possible to resume use of the Axon in-vehicle license plate readers, it is unclear if and when that will happen. 

Recent Headlines:

SPD police chief loses his cool Read More »

The U.S. is no longer a liberal democracy

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My reporting:

Right before my vacation, I wrote about the two WA state anti-trans initiatives that will be on the ballot this November. 

This week, I wrote about the news that Seattle and King County will be drastically downsizing the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) by taking back all their homeless provider contracts. I also wrote a bit about the new 2026 Point-in-Time Count report that shows that homelessness in the region is continuing to grow, albeit more slowly (meanwhile, unsheltered homelessness is growing more quickly).

In related news, PubliCola reported today that KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison might have been trying to avoid the public disclosure of some of her emails.

Stay tuned next week as I turn my attention to the FEPP levy and some interesting local election news. 

Other news:

Marcus Harrison Green has an insightful column out today about the news that Seattle didn’t have any homicides during the month of June. 

Once the World Cup was over, Mayor Katie Wilson did indeed turn off the surveillance cameras in the Stadium District. Their final fate is TBD depending on the all-important results of the audit she ordered earlier this year. At a rally this week, anti-surveillance activists demanded the removal of all the SPD surveillance cameras in the city. 

Speaking of surveillance, a former police officer from the Puyallup Police Department who retired in 2022 wrote an op-ed against the surveillance state and the use of Flock license plate readers in Puyallup. I think it is telling when even former police officers are speaking out against surveillance technology. 

And in Renton, the council voted to postpone their decision regarding their Flock license plate readers, which means for now, the cameras remain off.

Washington State will be on the hook for large penalty fees to the federal government (due to H.R. 1 from last year, what else?) if the state doesn’t improve its accuracy rate when dispensing food stamps. The Washington State Standard reported it could owe more than $90 million, a number that could increase due to the new SNAP work requirements, which could cause more errors as the state works to adapt.  

Yesterday, a judge ruled that the Northwest Detention Center, operated by the GEO Group, must allow Washington state Department of Health inspectors inside the facility. However, the inspectors do not need to be allowed to inspect areas of the facility operated by ICE, which immediately made me think of the recent reporting that CoreCivic sold two of its detention facilities in California to DHS in a move to avoid oversight. 

The injunctions ordered by the judge won’t go into effect for two weeks, giving the GEO Group time to appeal. 

And the U.S. lost its long-term status as a liberal democracy for the first time in over 50 years.

 “The scale and speed of autocratization under the Trump administration are unprecedented in modern times,” reads the V-Dem 2026 Democracy Report. “Within one year, the USA’s LDI score has declined by 24%; its world rank dropped from 20th to 51st place out of 179 nations.” 

Recent Headlines:

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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:

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

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:

 

Seattle looks to tighten its budget belt for 2027 Read More »

What’s going on with the SPD CCTV camera near Planned Parenthood

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Discerning readers may have noticed it’s been a bit longer than usual between updates. Unfortunately, I suffered from a lacerated finger earlier in March, and the healing has been a process. In the meantime, I was taking as much of a break as possible from typing. But I’m now on the mend, so here we are!

Seattle and King County News:

First off, we have Mayor Katie Wilson’s big announcement about her surveillance plans a couple weeks ago. I wrote about it here, as did many other outlets adding other details about NYU’s Policing Project and Axon’s contracts with ICE, among other issues. 

Wilson met with volunteers from her campaign who are against surveillance on Tuesday evening. Looking at Erica Barnett’s live posts of the event, it doesn’t appear that Wilson’s stance has changed since the town hall she did on March 27, when all but one commenter spoke against surveillance in Seattle. 

Local group Stop Surveillance City received footage from a public record request for the CCTV camera that films a Planned Parenthood in North Seattle. This is the camera Wilson said would be turned off. 

I reached out to the Mayor’s Office, and spokesperson Sage Wilson said the following:

“The cameras the mayor announced would be turned off have in fact been turned off as of March 19th, the day the mayor made the announcement. We have confirmed they are still turned off.

The point of confusion is that the PDR release contained video footage from three other cameras that are fixed, cannot be moved, and do not capture any activity at the sensitive location.”

Basically, each of the Seattle Police Department’s CCTV “cameras” is actually a cluster of five cameras: four that are fixed in a certain direction and one that can pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ). The Mayor’s Office had the PTZ camera and the camera facing in the direction of the Planned Parenthood turned off, but not the other three fixed cameras. 

A possible problem with this approach is that the remaining cameras are still filming people and vehicles who might be going to or leaving from this Planned Parenthood location. There wouldn’t be footage of folks actually entering the building, but footage could still place them in its vicinity.

I also wrote about some public record request results I received pertaining to the siting of the new crisis care center in the old Polyclinic building in Capitol Hill. It appears that a few property and business owners located in Capitol Hill lobbied hard against the new location. One of them was developer Liz Dunn, who Capitol Hill Seattle reported sparked the new safety plan at Pike and Pine last fall. Several of the involved parties were also involved in trying to remove the bus lane in Capitol Hill last year.  

King County Assessor John Wilson is awaiting trial on two charges of violating a no-contact order obtained by his ex-fiancee. In the meantime, he has to wear an ankle monitor. Wilson has thus far refused to resign from his elected position of assessor even though the King County Council demanded his resignation last year. If nothing changes, he’ll stay in office through the end of the year. Meanwhile, all the County employees who work under him continue being forced to have him as their boss if they want to keep their jobs. 

Immigration and Other Surveillance News:

I’d like to share three recent headlines about federal immigration enforcement in Washington State:

What’s going on here and how can all three of these headlines be true? 

The answer is the time frame of the data being discussed is quite important! In my piece, I was writing about the University of Washington Center for Human Rights’s data from October through December of 2025, when detentions in the state were definitely increasing. The Washington State Standard was writing about data from October 2025 through March 2026. And The Seattle Times was specifically calling out data from January and February 2026, when the national number of detentions fell. 

The Washington State Standard noted that detentions here in Washington State appeared to drop after Alex Pretti’s murder in late January. 

The Seattle Times also reported on a new data point provided by Rep. Suzan DelBene, that the Tacoma detention facility’s population has dropped and is at 919 as of Friday, April 3. This is in spite of a new contract between the GEO Group, who operates the facility, and the federal government. The contract began in late March and runs until October 27 and increased the total number of detainees the facility can house from 1,575 to 1,635. Given how bad conditions were at the old maximum, I don’t like to think how an additional 60 detainees could further deteriorate things. 

Meanwhile, the GEO Group is still doing its utmost to prevent Washington state health inspectors from getting inside the facility and conducting an inspection. 

In surveillance news, Seattle isn’t the only jurisdiction that had to shut off its license plate readers due to the new state law regulating their use. Renton had to do the same.

The UW campus is getting more security cameras installed, according to the Daily UW: “Wilson confirmed that UWPD plans to install more cameras in public areas throughout campus, but that the Montlake Cut is not planned to see new surveillance footage.” 

(Note: The Wilson in the above excerpt refers to the UWPD Chief Craig Wilson, not Seattle’s Mayor.)

The Newcastle City Council voted to terminate their contract with Flock this week due to concern over potential liability from the state’s new license plate reader bill. Newcastle is one of the King County Sheriff’s Office’s (KCSO’s) contract cities, and there is worry the City would hold liability instead of the County. This is a legal issue that would probably only impact cities who are contract cities, meaning they outsource their law enforcement services. 

WA State News:

The millionaires tax passed the state legislature and was signed by Governor Bob Ferguson, and of course I wrote all about it. 

Last week, the Washington State Supreme Court granted Brian Heywood’s request to review his case in trying to file a referendum against the millionaires tax. The Court is expected to consider the question on April 30. 

A lawsuit against the tax was filed yesterday.

Last week, Ferguson signed the new state budget, which relies on a heavy withdrawal from the rainy day fund and includes cuts, cuts, cuts. There will be another $878 million deficit to deal with during the next legislative session for 2028. Proceeds from the millionaires tax are not expected to be collected until 2029, assuming it survives all the challenges against it. 

The Stranger had a write-up this week about the importance of the Washington State Supreme Court races this year. I did include a short discussion of this race in my millionaires tax piece above, but I really can’t emphasize enough what a big deal it is that the court will have five seats (out of nine) on the ballot this year. I hope to write more about this sooner rather than later, and I encourage you to watch these races closely. 

Recent Headlines:

 

What’s going on with the SPD CCTV camera near Planned Parenthood 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. 

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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. 

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It’s been a hard month for license plate readers in Washington State

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Seattle News:

Katie Wilson will be Seattle’s next mayor, and Seattle’s 2026 budget has been adopted! Whew, what a month. 

I wrote my take on the budget last week, a few days before its final passage. You can also read a list of budget amendments proposed by the councilmembers and PubliCola’s budget wrap-up. 

No budget discussion would be complete without noting both the efforts on the parts of councilmembers to limit the Mayor-elect’s budget flexibility. There are also deep concerns over the likely loss of federal funding for housing and homelessness programs via the Continuum of Care funds from HUD, especially permanent supportive housing funding. 

A coalition of states, including Washington, has filed a lawsuit against HUD over the above policy changes.

King County has selected Connections Health Solutions to run the new crisis care center in Capitol Hill. Connections already runs the crisis care center in Kirkland and is a national company as opposed to a local community based provider. 

DivestSPD published some charts last week about changes at the Office of Police Accountability (OPA). According to Divest, the OPA only fully investigated 23% of complaints in 2025 compared to 37% in 2023, when the department was under the leadership of former Director Gino Betts. 

OPA contact logs have also increased from 16% in 2022 to 28% in 2025, so it will be interesting to hear from the OPA next year (now under the leadership of Bonnie Glenn) as to why this is the case. 

For those interested in the Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise (FEPP) levy spending plan, the Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL) is holding four community outreach/conversation sessions in December, for which you can RSVP:

  • Tuesday, December 2, 5:30–7:30 PM at the Magnuson Community Center, 7110 62nd Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115 
  • Wednesday, December 10, 5:30–7:30 PM at the Ballard Branch – Seattle Public Library, 5614 22nd Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107 
  • Thursday, December 11, 5:30–7:30 PM at Denny International Middle School, 2601 SW Kenyon St, Seattle, WA 98106 
  • Tuesday, December 16, 5:30–7:30 PM at Rainier Community Center, 4600 38th Ave. S, Seattle, WA 98118 

Divest SPD reported that less than 10% of 2025 SPD recruits were women, a blow to the department’s 30×30 initiative. 

Skeptics of the initiative point out that women making up 30% of the police force wouldn’t necessarily fix the systemic issue of police violence. Also concerning is the department’s efforts to recruit women without a clear plan in place to address what appears, from both lawsuits and conditions documented in a 30×30 report published in September 2023, to be a hostile workplace for women. 

New Councilmember Eddie Lin was sworn in today. Councilmember-elect Dionne Foster and Mayor-elect Katie Wilson won’t be sworn in until the beginning of 2026, but because Lin’s seat was being held by an appointee, he was sworn in early. 

For the same reason, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay was sworn in today. 

Surveillance News:

I wrote about Washington cities’ struggle with what to do about Flock Safety license plate readers (ALPRs), both because of the evidence that the data is being shared with federal agencies, including ICE, and because of a recent lawsuit brought by the cities of Stanwood and Sedro-Wooley in which ALPR video was deemed to be within valid public record parameters. As a result, many Washington cities have paused or delayed their ALPR programs. 

In the summer, I reported that it looked like the King County Housing Authority’s (KCHA) ALPR camera data had been shared with federal agencies such as ICE. KCHA has since decided to end their ALPR pilot. 

Since I wrote the article, Stanwood and Sedro-Wooley have appealed the court decision about whether ALPR video counts as a public record, and residents of Olympia are asking their city council to shut down their Flock ALPR program.

There are also new records showing that ALPR programs are being used to surveil protesters and activists, including in Washington state. 

Meanwhile,The Intercept found that fusion centers were being used to surveil pro-Palestine protests on at least five college campuses across the country. Fusion centers were established after 9/11 to better enable information sharing between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including campus police. 

“The normalization of intelligence sharing between campus police departments and federal law enforcement agencies is widespread across U.S. universities,” the Intercept wrote.

Washington State News:

Governor Bob Ferguson made an appointment to fill the upcoming vacancy on the Washington Supreme Court: Colleen Melody, who spent the last decade working at the Attorney General’s office leading the civil rights division (a position to which she was hired by Ferguson). While at the AG’s office, Melody was deeply involved in filing lawsuits against President Donald Trump’s executive orders during his first term from 2017-2020. A career government lawyer, Melody has never before served as a judge. 

Melody will serve as a Supreme Court justice for 2026, but she would have to run for election next November in order to retain the judgeship. The big question to consider, should she choose to run, is her stance on the legality of a wealth tax in Washington state. 

The latest state revenue forecast showed a slight uptick in revenue projections for the current biennial budget (2025-2027), but not enough to make much difference. Talk abounds about potential new revenue sources for the state. It’s unclear if we’ll see a repeat to this year’s legislative session when Ferguson said he’d veto any budget proposal that included a wealth tax. 

Ferguson is expected to release his budget proposal before the end of the year, giving us a few weeks to review it before the next state legislative session begins on January 12. 

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