Seattle, WA Privacy & Surveillance: License Plate Readers (2026)

Chapter 14.18 defines "surveillance" to expressly include identifying people through license plate data combined with other records, so ALPR/Flock-type camera programs fall squarely under the chapter. Under SMC 14.18.020.A, a department may not acquire surveillance technology, including directing a non-City entity to operate it on the City's behalf, until the Council approves both the acquisition and a Surveillance Impact Report (SIR) by ordinance. Before requesting that approval, the department must hold at least one public community meeting with an opportunity for comment (14.18.020.C). The SIR itself, required under 14.18.040, must spell out how data will be stored, how long it is retained and when it is deleted, and whether the department intends to share access to the technology or its data with any other entity, City or non-City, and what restrictions will bind that recipient (14.18.040.B.3.d, .f).

Departments must give the CTO written procedures for holding any receiving non-City entity to those SIR restrictions (14.18.040.D). A carve-out lets a department share surveillance data "to the extent required by court order, subpoena, or as otherwise required by law" even over SIR terms (14.18.040.C), the hook that governs a legal-process request from a federal agency such as ICE. Oversight runs through the CTO, the Inspector General for Public Safety for SPD technology, the City Auditor for other departments, and the seven-member Community Surveillance Working Group created by 14.18.080, which reviews every SIR and contributes to a CTO equity impact assessment filed with the Council by September 15 each year (14.18.050).

Cameras used solely to record traffic violations under state law authorization are exempted from the whole chapter (14.18.030.B.3), so red-light and school-zone cameras are not covered the same way ALPR is.