Seattle Mesh Network
Information Certainty: Rumoured
Deployment Purpose: Surveillance
| Summary |
|---|
| 0 |
Products and Institutions:
| Product Deployed | Unknown Products 0027 |
|---|---|
| Institutions ⠉ | Unknown Products 0027 |
| Datasets | Unknown Dataset 0063 |
| Search software |
Status and Events:
| Status | Concluded |
|---|---|
| Events | Start (2 January 2013, Documented, , No description) End (2 January 2018, Documented, , No description) |
| Start Date | |
| End Date |
Users:
| Involved Entities | Washington State Fusion Centre |
|---|---|
| Managed by | Seattle Police Department Seattle City Council |
| Used by | Seattle Police Department Seattle City Council |
Location:
| City | Seattle (WA) |
|---|---|
| Country ⠉ | USA |
Description[ ]
Seattle has dismantled an extensive network of federally funded cameras. Set up in 2013, they were allegedly turned off shortly after. However they were only dismantled in 2018. The resulting public scrutiny led to more revelations of surveillance technologies. Although it is not known whether facial recognition was in use, it has since been banned.
The proposed network includes some 30 high resolution video cameras to monitor waterfront areas throughout the city, including some far from the port. The cameras, some of which are capable of thermal imaging, will be connected by a new dedicated wireless data network designed primarily for police use. The network will have links to local transit and other systems. The ordinance authorizing the project was passed by the City Council and signed by the mayor in a largely perfunctory way. Pertinent details were left out of the council briefings. The new surveillance network was supposed to go live at the end of this month. But when news of the project broke in the West Seattle Blog, the resulting public outcry prompted Mayor McGinn to call for a “thorough public vetting” before deploying the system, and City Council veteran Nick Licata to draft new legislation to regulate it 2
The mesh network, according to the ACLU, news reports and anti-surveillance activists from Seattle Privacy Coalition, had the potential to track and log every wireless device that moved through its system: people attending protests, people getting cups of coffee, people going to a hotel in the middle of the workday. In November 2013, shortly after the news stories about it came out, SPD spokesman Sean Whitcomb announced: “The wireless mesh network will be deactivated until city council approves a draft (privacy) policy and until there’s an opportunity for vigorous public debate.” That policy never materialized. Now crews are tearing its hardware down and repurposing the usable parts for other city agencies, including Seattle Department of Transportation traffic cameras 1
In 2018, new measures were passed to manage surveillance technologies. However little is known about their full scope. In 2013, the city council passed a surveillance ordinance giving it more oversight in the acquisition of devices with surveillance capabilities. Last year, that ordinance was amended and bulked up, requiring city departments to report their surveillance-enabled technologies already in use and present them for review by the council. To date, city departments have identified 28 technologies — from Seattle Department of Transportation’s license-plate readers to SPD tools like iBase, a “crime analysis tool allows for configuring, capturing, controlling, analyzing and displaying complex information and relationships in link and entity data.” So what, exactly, does that do? “That’s the point,” Narayan said with a chuckle. “All we have now are vague descriptions — it could be anything from a simple graphic representation of a spreadsheet to a complex analytic tool that establishes relationships to show that somebody might be a gang member.” 1
References
- a b c "Surveillance system or public-safety tool? Seattle dismantles controversial wireless mesh network". (2018) <https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/surveillance-system-or-public-safety-tool-seattle-dismantles-controversial-wireless-mesh-network/>
- a b "7 questions about the Seattle Police Department’s high tech surveillance program". (2013) <https://www.geekwire.com/2013/seven-questions-about-seattle-police-departments-new-high-tech-surveillance-program/> Accessed: 2022-06-26