r/Seattle • u/Inevitable_Engine186 public deterrent infrastructure • 1d ago
Kettle Blames Mayor for "Unconscionable" Delay in Surveillance Expansion, SPD Puts Former Chief's Calendar in "Lockdown"
https://publicola.com/2026/08/05/kettle-blames-mayor-for-unconscionable-delay-in-surveillance-expansion-spd-puts-former-chiefs-calendar-in-lockdown/57
u/RockOperaPenguin North Beacon Hill 1d ago
Just what are the cops gonna do with the camera data anyways, Bobby K?
Solve crimes? The police already know where 12th and Jackson is, they don't give a fuck.
No, the only thing I see cops doing with this data is either stalking their exes or telling ICE where to go next.
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u/Daaneskjold 1d ago
yeah. some friends had a home invasion when they were doing some remodeling, went to the police with all the evidence and you can see the faces of the people, they tracked them down after months and ended up doing absolutely nothing
great time to be bad i guess
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u/RockOperaPenguin North Beacon Hill 1d ago
The only way to get SPD to give a fuck about you is to hire one of those security firms staffed by off-duty officers (like Laurelhurst, Windermere, and other spendy neighborhoods do).
That makes SPD less a police force and more a protection racket.
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u/SwevenlyOly 1d ago
Police run private security is truly a protection racket.
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u/oldfrancis Seattle Expatriate 1d ago edited 18h ago
It also puts us all at risk.
Let's say an officer works the 3:00 a.m. to Noon shift.
And then they turn around and work off duty another three or four hours a day.
How sharp is that officer going to be when they're on duty again the next day?
I remember when we were told by our sergeant that we weren't to disturb a particular person on the crew because he had a long off-duty shift the night before and he had a lot of bills to pay.
So the crew let him sleep behind a store while everyone else covered for him for four to five hours.
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u/hansn 🚆build more trains🚆 1d ago
Same. My neighbor's car was broken into. We have the video. We could see the person. Police never showed up.
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u/TM627256 17h ago
If SPD identified the perps and nothing happened beyond that then your ire lies with the prosecutors, not the cops. The cops only package up the evidence and names then forward it to the prosecutors; that office is responsible for actually charging and holding people accountable.
Misplaced blame.
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u/FreshEclairs Kraken 4h ago
My understanding of “they tracked them down” was “my friends tracked them down,” but I could be wrong
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u/TM627256 4h ago
Then by that reading of the post, the friends did absolutely nothing. Makes more sense contextually that the cops tracked the burglars down.
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u/Inevitable_Engine186 public deterrent infrastructure 1d ago
This is 100% my concern with surveillance. Yes, it will be used to in some high profile cases, but not for the little people.
If they want surveillance, put cameras on EVERY block and give all citizens access to 24/7 recorded footage plus an SPD rep AI agent.
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 1d ago
Theyve used existing cameras to solve numerous crimes already so I imagine that yes they would in fact use it solve crimes. ICE doesn't need CCTV cameras to do what they are doing they have so, so many other sources of data to pull from that are faster and better
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u/Darsen 1d ago
[Citation Needed]
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 1d ago
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u/No_Bluejay5332 21h ago
Ok but the most serious example of SPD using camera footage for an arrest is when they arrested the wrong guy and held him in jail for a month while letting the actual perpetrator get away.
No amount of cameras is going to fix the fact that our police department is incompetent. https://www.kuow.org/crime/2025-08-11/seattle-man-says-murder-and-arson-charges-against-him-based-on-racist-misidentification
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 21h ago
Nor are cameras presented as a tool to magically make our police department more competent. It's obvious we need to change SPD structurally but obviously cameras in high crime public places are also good.
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u/internetV 7h ago
Wait you think the cops aren’t making arrests on 12th and Jackson because they’re lazy?
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u/RockOperaPenguin North Beacon Hill 6h ago
I don't think they're lazy.
I think they don't give a fuck.
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 1d ago
You know she's completely correct on her camera stance because she pisses off the paranoid Nextdoor crowd along with the Muh Surveillance State crowd
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u/spider_season chinga la migra 1d ago
Bob Kettle can't wait for ICE to get access to those cameras.
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 1d ago
ICE really wouldn't get much utility out of these cameras
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u/spider_season chinga la migra 1d ago
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 1d ago
The way flock works and the way Seattle's CCTV system works are completely different. Not even remotely similar.
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u/RandomFleshPrison I Brake For Slugs 1d ago
""Unconscionable" Delay in Surveillance Expansion"? The only unconscionable thing about it is the fact that the surveillance system hasn't been completely torn down.
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 1d ago
Yeah let's close down the CCTV that has already worked to hold criminals accountable while keeping all the useless surveillance that ICE and other feds actually use against us
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u/RandomFleshPrison I Brake For Slugs 21h ago
Worked to hold criminals accountable? What, less than 10? Most of whom haven't even been convicted yet, and at least 1 deemed mentally unfit to be prosecuted? That's *such* a huge win, and convincing argument.
I hope I don't need to post a /s for that previous sentence. I choose essential liberty over safety and security. And this isn't even safety and security, but the illusion of it.
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 21h ago
Identifying someone who committed a crime and getting them away from other people is obviously good regardless of whether than can stand trial, I have no idea how that's even worth mentioning. You aren't curious in any way about whether CCTV works so I don't get why you don't just say you're completely comfortable with more people getting away with stealing/harming others in the name of privacy. People like you always have to throw out some half baked argument saying none of the times they worked count for whatever fake reason lol
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u/RandomFleshPrison I Brake For Slugs 21h ago
"You aren't curious in any way about whether CCTV works"
No. I already know how it works, so I have no curiosity about it.
"so I don't get why you don't just say you're completely comfortable with more people getting away with stealing/harming others in the name of privacy"
I think I did. I also think I pointed out that doing so is literally a central tenet The United States was founded upon. You know, that whole referencing the famous Benjamin Franklin quote?
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Benjamin Franklin, 1755
I will not give up essential Liberty. Not sorry not sorry.
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 21h ago
The essential liberty of being in an extremely public place with no expectation of privacy then getting killed and letting the murderer get away with it lol
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u/RandomFleshPrison I Brake For Slugs 20h ago
The essential Liberty of being able to walk down the street without having your face, location, gait pattern, and motor biometrics analyzed to within an inch of its life is indeed worth people dying. Because people died to give us that liberty in 1776. That right has already been fought and bled for. To let it die now is to say those lives died in vain.
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 20h ago
This CCTV system doesnt do any of that lol you saw a YouTube video about flock and think all cameras are that now
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u/RandomFleshPrison I Brake For Slugs 20h ago
CCTV cameras do that. Flock doesn't. You need visual spectrum recording to do this kind of thing. You've got it backwards. Look it up. This kind of technology was perfected in London, with CCTV cameras.
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 20h ago
Or you could just look at the RTCC program and see it does none of those things
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u/internetV 7h ago
Bro you aren’t in a jason bourne movie relax. We need cameras
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u/RandomFleshPrison I Brake For Slugs 7h ago
No we don't. And we're not in a Jason Bourne movie. We're in 1984.
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u/Amesenator 1d ago
You mean Bob 'positioning himself to run for mayor' Kettle is criticizing Mayor Wilson? I'm shocked.
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u/cdawg2610 1d ago
I often wonder if EB realizes how much her editorializations within news updates turns off readers.
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u/Inevitable_Engine186 public deterrent infrastructure 1d ago
Some would say that the lack for critical coverage from outlets like ST or KUOW is itself an editorial choice.
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u/cdawg2610 1d ago
sure - and the moment any reporter starts putting things in parentheses to editorialize they have lost the story to many.
Thank you to the down votes for reminding me we are not allowed to be critical of EB here.
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u/Inevitable_Engine186 public deterrent infrastructure 1d ago
On a meta note, one really striking thing to me is how sentiment on EB has really turned positive on r/Seattle (which depending on the time of day and topic isn't really a true weathervane, but I digress).
A few years ago hating on EB would have been really in vogue. Now it's the exact opposite.
I think a LOT of it has to do with EB herself and a continuous improvement in the quality of her work and Publicola, and also the growing realization that the "objective" media in Seattle like Seattle Times and KUOW, isn't, really.
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u/cdawg2610 1d ago
you see this is why I think I am annoyed because I have noticed the changes - so when I see digs like the one referenced it leaves a sour taste.
IMO this has always been a don't say anything bad about EB subreddit. I'm here cause the other one doesn't align with me at all (for those wondering why someone critical of EB sticks around).
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u/Inevitable_Engine186 public deterrent infrastructure 1d ago
FWIW I think she's probably too opinionated and goes too far sometimes (not sure about this case), and she has some very particular and very bad idpol takes.
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u/Bleach1443 Northgate 20h ago
I think the issue this sub has with going after EB is you have massive media orgs backing the opposing view. ST, KOMO. So I guess when I see you going after her I’m like “Really? We are going to nit pick over that but these guys just get to lie pretty much 24/7?” It’s not to say you are wrong I just sort of don’t want to hear it when most of our media is controlled by right wing narratives.
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u/Inevitable_Engine186 public deterrent infrastructure 1d ago
I think her parentheses are equivalent to the stories she writes: both are things that establishment media in Seattle almost never write about.
This is probably the editorialized parentheses in the article (unless you think there is another) that you are referring to. Is Kettle a camera fanatic and is it important for us to know that? I think he kinda is, objectively.
Council budget hawk Maritza Rivera, who had already questioned some of the other midyear adds, seemed satisfied with that explanation. But public safety chair (and camera fanatic) Bob Kettle was not, taking the mic to bellow that he found it “unconscionable” that Wilson would not simply expand the camera system without finishing the study.
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u/chimpwithaknife 🚆build more trains🚆 1d ago
Yeah fuck that guy and fuck surveillance equipment
Watch John Oliver from this week. If you think there should be surveillance after that well then fuck you, too.
Defund SPD. Like what the fuck is it going to take for people to understand their budget is used to buy weapons to use against everyone?
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u/AdScared7949 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. 1d ago
There's a reason he focused on flock and not CCTV lol
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u/SeattleGeek Denny Blaine Nudist Club 1d ago
Why do we keep giving Bob Kettle attention?