(The Center Square) – The occasion was a briefing on World Cup security, but before it ended, three Seattle City Council Members criticized Mayor Katie Wilson’s decision not to turn on surveillance cameras at Lumen Field unless there was a “credible threat.”
“It’s not a professional standard,” said Public Safety Committee Chairman Bob Kettle, who chaired the meeting on Tuesday concerning the security plans for the six games that start on June 15.
Kettle, a former naval intelligence officer, said he did not understand Wilson’s position and that defining what is a “credible threat” is difficult.
Wilson’s office did not respond to requests for comment from The Center Square. Wilson was not in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting.
On Wednesday morning, Wilson’s office issued the following statement to KOMO News: “Mayor Wilson continues to consult public safety officials regarding circumstances that might warrant use of the expanded set of cameras during the FIFA World Cup. We appreciate councilmembers’ perspectives, and those will be part of ongoing discussions.”
“With regard to credible threats: Identifying a credible threat involves multiple experts from federal, state, and local agencies monitoring and assessing various streams of information. In collaboration with one another, they weigh incoming intelligence and jointly recommend whether to elevate security operations. Mayor Wilson’s decision whether to activate the Stadium District cameras will be informed by this group’s recommendation,” reads the statement published by KOMO.
The program was started in 2025 under the administration of Wilson‘s predecessor, Bruce Harrell. It was due to be expanded in 2026 to several areas of Seattle, including the Stadium District, with 26 cameras in the Lumen Field area.
Wilson, who has previously cited privacy concerns and fears that federal immigration agents would use the cameras to catch undocumented aliens, put the program on hold while a consultant studies the city program.
She did, however, agree to the cameras being installed by Lumen Field, with the caveat that they would only be turned on in the event of a credible threat.
Kettle was joined by Councilman Rob Saka, the co-chair of the committee and Councilwoman Maritza Rivera, criticizing the mayor’s decision.
“We need to get it right 100 percent of the time,” Saka said of World Cup security, “but the people who seek to do our community harm only need to get it right once.”
Saka showed up to Tuesday’s public safety committee meeting decked out in 2013 Boston Marathon gear. He said he had just finished the race with his wife when bombs went off in a terrorist incident.
Saka held up his finisher’s medal throughout his 12-minute speech, saying he “didn’t know how to protect my wife” when the bombs went off that year.
“I was there. … I know what chaos feels like.”
“I don’t think that our city is as ready as it could be to host the world for such a global event of this scale,” Saka continued. “The good news is that the solution is simple. There’s a quick fix available. This council has previously authorized and funded the expansion of critical security cameras in key areas throughout the city.”
Saka, himself a former naval intelligence officer like Kettle, said Wilson’s views were unrealistic.
Waiting for a credible threat, he said, “falsely assumes and incorrectly assumes that the purported threat will always pop up on a radar every single time with no fail rate whatsoever. As someone who’s a former intelligence officer who did this work, I wish that were true. It’s just not.”
Kettle said the concept of a “credible threat” is hard to define.
“Ask the mayor of Atlanta during the ’96 Olympics, was there a credible threat notification on that bombing? There wasn’t,” Kettle said.
Councilmember Maritza Rivera said the city council already approved funding, authorized the cameras, and approved privacy protections during the city’s Real-Time Crime Center expansion.
Rivera pointed out that CCTV cameras are an essential tool for major cities nationwide to prevent crime and assist law enforcement in investigations.
But ultimately, she said, no matter how much council members complained, there was little they could do.
She said the final decision to turn on the cameras rested with the mayor and no one else.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add a statement from Mayor Katie Wilson’s office provided to other media outlets.
