Seattle commenters press council on surveillance, ICE activity and police accountability
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Summary
At the Feb. 24 City Council meeting, about 20 public speakers urged action on surveillance cameras, alleged SPD misconduct and ICE operations, demanded transparency around a Seattle City Light firing and raised concerns about possible fraud in a state online petition; council closed public comment and moved to business.
Dozens of Seattle residents used the City Council’s Feb. 24 public-comment period to press elected leaders for action on surveillance cameras, police accountability and local responses to federal immigration enforcement.
"We're kinda frustrated with the lack of transparency with the whole process," said Nathan, a Local 77 member, urging the council to explain the firing of Seattle City Light CEO Don Lindell and to confirm whether the city followed established procedures. Horace Cameron Davis, a Local 77 steward, backed Nathan and said Lindell "did a fantastic job" implementing a multi-year strategic plan for aging equipment.
Several speakers focused on policing and ICE. Gabriel Dias described being tackled and punched during a Cal Anderson protest and identified the officer he said assaulted him as "Caleb Howard," urging the council to fire officers he named. Gwendolyn, a Movement for Shama organizer, cited an executive order requiring SPD to document ICE activity and urged stronger enforcement and community control of policing.
Speakers were divided on surveillance cameras. Peter Manning and Mike Asai urged more neighborhood CCTV to address violence and restore officers to schools, while Rose and Keandre described distrust of city use of camera data and privacy intrusions — Keandre said a new camera in Chinatown "looks straight into my room." Yvette praised a new community hub and said cameras can also help residents "spy on them as well."
Other topics included an on-the-record statistical claim about a state petition. Bennett said he downloaded registration data for Washington Senate Bill 6346 and found about 110,000 "con" registrations with roughly 17% duplicate names versus about 10,000 "pro" registrations with about 10% duplicates; Bennett said that disparity suggests irregularities in the public-registration data.
Public commenters also asked the council to consider municipal IDs, eviction moratoria, funding for youth programs and broader public-safety strategies. Solomon, an online speaker representing 3 Kings Dojo, urged funding to provide free martial-arts programming for at-risk youth as a preventive measure.
The council closed public comment after about 20 speakers and proceeded to adopt the agenda and consent calendar. No formal council action on the topics raised in public comment was taken during the meeting; several speakers asked for follow-up meetings with individual council members.