She won't, however, turn off any of the cameras the city currently uses, save for one near a clinic that offers reproductive health services.
The halt, she said, will give her and her administration time to thoroughly audit the protocols surrounding their use, which will likely take several months and involve help from New York University's Policing Project, which aims to create more accountability and transparency in policing techniques.
Wilson also announced the city will turn off its technology to automatically read license plates — currently installed on roughly 400 police patrol and parking enforcement cars — until the city aligns its policies with new laws approved this month by the state Legislature that limit how and when police can access the information.
Wilson's decision has been long anticipated. After she campaigned on stopping expansion and possibly turning off existing cameras, many of the people who volunteered and worked on Wilson's campaign had pushed her to make good on her pledges amid fears the cameras could be weaponized by the federal government.
Since coming into office, she expressed more openness to their use as proponents — including her police chief — lobbied her to continue with the system's growth.
Wilson said she sought a nuanced path forward that she acknowledged was likely to leave voices on both sides of the issue dissatisfied.
There's no doubt that these cameras make it easier to solve some crimes, including serious ones like homicides," she said. "But also, cameras are not the one key to making our neighborhoods safe. And on the other hand, there are legitimate concerns about privacy, oversurveillance and potential misuse of surveillance technologies. But also, these cameras are not the primary threat to immigrants, trans people or people seeking reproductive health care in our country right now."
Speaking Thursday, Wilson said she still holds the same concerns as she did on the trail. At the same time, she said, "I know a lot more now about how these cameras work and what they're used for."
Wilson's announcement seeks to thread a needle on the issue. Though she's pausing the addition of cameras near Garfield High School and Capitol Hill, she said she had greenlit their installation in the stadium district before the World Cup this summer. But those cameras would not be turned on unless the city received credible warnings of a security threat.
The definition of "credible threat" has not yet been established, she said.
At the same time, Wilson declined to turn off 62 cameras the city already uses. Located on Aurora Avenue, in downtown and in the Chinatown International District, the cameras were part of a pilot program to feed information to a centralized "crime center" operated by the Seattle Police Department.
The exception is one camera near a clinic providing reproductive health services. Police said they blur faces of people coming and going from the clinic, but Wilson said she wanted a closer review of the protections around that feed.
The question of the surveillance cameras has been an early political test for the mayor, who is not yet three months into her term.
Business and downtown interest groups have pushed for her to continue apace with plans proposed last year by her predecessor, Bruce Harrell, and approved by the Seattle City Council to grow the surveillance system. Police Chief Shon Barnes, whom Wilson opted to retain, called them "invaluable."
Before her announcement, two business advocates, Jon Scholes of the Downtown Seattle Association and Erin Goodman of the Sodo Business Improvement Area, made one last push for her to keep the expansion going.
"By deploying new technology with robust safeguards, the City of Seattle can further strengthen a balanced, accountable, and community-centered approach to public safety," the two said in a letter.
Wilson has also heard calls from mothers who support camera use and are concerned about safety for their children, particularly in the aftermath of the killing of two Rainier Beach High School students.
At the same time, a petition from workers and volunteers on her campaign, calling on her to "immediately stop" the expansion of cameras, gathered momentum.
Xochitl Maykovich, who was a lead organizer on Wilson's campaign, said the petition came out of a fear they were losing the mayor they sought to elect.
"I think people put in a lot of this work with the expectation we would be getting something other than a Bruce Harrell mayor," she said.
Bob Kettle, chair of the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee and advocate for the cameras, said he "welcomed" a review and audit, but urged them to be completed before the World Cup.
Before making her official remarks, Wilson nodded to the thorniness of the choice before her.
"Sometimes as the mayor, you make decisions that no one’s going to like," she said. "This might be one of those.
©2026 The Seattle Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
