By Alia Sinclair

SeaTac City Councilmember James Lovell submitted a request for the City Manager to evaluate and prepare a proposed response to potential unlawful deployment of federal troops and corresponding infringement of SeaTac resident’s civil rights at Tuesday night’s (Oct. 14) city council meeting.

Councilmember Lovell stated he felt it was important that someone on the council drew attention to the threat of federal troops and stated he was “happy to be that person.”

Councilmember Lovell read prepared remarks about his request to the City Manager, explaining why he took the action.

“There’s a lot happening with the federal troop deployment, or at least the threat of it. I want to be clear; this isn’t a genuine attempt to keep Americans safe. It is a weak display from a brittle warlord, posturing for the cameras and creating unsafe conditions where none existed before. Armed troops, most of whom want no part in this, but feel duty-bound to follow orders, are being sent to confront political enemies. This is political theatre with very real social and economic consequences. I’m not just talking about a dip in regional tourism if federal troops show up in Seattle. I’m talking about the broader threats, the attempts to block FIFA from coming here, the punitive tariffs aimed at states that stand up for Constitutional rights and the unlawful bedlam that ICE agents and bounty hunters are causing. This isn’t just about Seattle, Chicago, and Los Angeles, or the roles they play on the national stage. It’s about every city in America, large or small, that dares to defend civil rights. It’s about our King County Sheriff’s Deputies, county-wide, being allowed to focus on actual safety and justice and not having to stand between [the] President and our residents. The dangers President Trump is shouting about are not here. There is no eminent physical threat. This is a clown act, a distraction meant to draw your attention with one hand while the other chips away at our civil liberties. We need to understand our options and be ready to use them. I don’t want to see a military convoy rolling through SeaTac spreading fear along I-5, International Boulevard, or Military Road. We may not have the legal authority to stop it outright. What we can do, though, is stand with our regional partners in King County, Seattle, and the State of Washington in their lawsuits. This might not seem like much, but SeaTac has always punched above its weight. I’m asking my colleagues to reaffirm the values we’ve all spoken about before and to seek council on how to best protect the Constitutional rights of our residents.”

City Manager Jonathan Young proposed four possible directions in response to Councilmember Lovell’s request, outlined in the graph below:

The council agreed that Option #3, in conjunction with options #1 and # 2, seemed to be the most reasonable course of action. 

Councilmember Simpson raised the concern of data from the city’s FLOCK camera system possibly being misused in the event of a deployment of federal troops. 

Councilmember Vinson responded that he had already spoken to SeaTac’s Chief of Police, Troy Smithmeyer, who assured Councilmember Vinson that the City of SeaTac had sole ownership over the data collected by the FLOCK cameras.

 “There are no federal agencies that have access to our data”, Councilmember Vinson explained, “In fact, the City of SeaTac, not FLOCK, not King County, we own the data. The data auto-deletes every 30 days unless it’s tied to an active investigation.”

Councilmember Simpson countered by citing instances where data from technology like SeaTac’s FLOCK cameras were being unlawfully used in areas where federal troops were deployed and suggested that – if there was any uncertainty about whether or not the data would be used by unlawfully in SeaTac – that the city should consider suspending the use of the technology until federal troops had left the region.