When the George Floyd protests swept Seattle in the summer of 2020, the Seattle Police Department issued no public announcement about the surveillance technologies it was deploying. Only through FOIA requests, ACLU litigation, and investigative reporting by outlets including The Stranger and Real Change News did the full picture emerge: a layered surveillance system involving aerial assets, private facial recognition databases, acoustic weaponry, and smart city sensors — much of it operating in legal grey zones.
Guardian One: Aerial Intelligence Platform
The King County Sheriff’s Office operates a Cessna aircraft designated “Guardian One”, equipped with a Gyrocam electro-optical sensor system capable of capturing and stabilizing footage at distances exceeding 25,000 feet. Real Change News documented that during the June 2020 protests, Guardian One flew continuous circuits above Capitol Hill, streaming HD video directly to the SPD’s Real-Time Crime Center.
The Gyrocam’s resolution allows zooming to street level from altitude, with sufficient detail for facial identification. Flight logs obtained under public disclosure requests showed loiter times exceeding four hours per sortie during peak protest activity.
Counter-measure: Roof cover and building overhangs break line-of-sight from a circling aircraft. Infrared reflective materials in adversarial pattern garments complicate sensor discrimination between individuals.
Clearview AI and the Facial Recognition Question
In 2020, the ACLU of Washington obtained evidence that SPD officers had accounts with Clearview AI — a facial recognition tool trained on 3 billion scraped images from social media platforms. Each Clearview query compares an uploaded face against this database, returning probable matches with linked social profiles.
Deployment against protest imagery means: a single frame of news footage, a photo posted by a third party, or a still from a surveillance camera can be used to identify an unmasked protester — even years after the fact. King County became the first U.S. county to ban government facial recognition, but federal agencies operating within the same geography are not bound by the ordinance.
Counter-measure: Consistent masking in all public protest contexts. CV Dazzle patterns applied to exposed areas remain effective against 2D image matching. The DIY IR Hoodie Kit provides active IR LED overexposure against camera sensors.
LRAD Deployment: The Sound Weapon
In September 2020, SPD acquired a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) — marketed as a “communication tool” but functionally capable of projecting sound at 162dB, far exceeding the 85dB threshold for immediate hearing damage. Wikipedia’s LRAD entry documents its use in dispersal of crowds worldwide.
The ACLU received a complaint from a peaceful protester who sustained lasting tinnitus after an LRAD deployment at approximately 300-meter range. The SPD’s use policy does not require a direct threat justification, only crowd non-compliance with a dispersal order.
Counter-measure: High-grade industrial hearing protection (NRR 30+, dual protection using foam inserts under earmuffs for NRR 36+) significantly reduces acoustic weapon impact. The Civil Defense Bundle includes hearing protection rated for industrial noise exposure.
Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs)
Seattle’s expanding ALPR network — documented in a GeekWire investigation — captures timestamps, GPS coordinates, and images of every vehicle passing a sensor. During protests, every vehicle parked within a ten-block radius of a demonstration site is logged, creating a de facto attendance record tied to license plates and, via DMV cross-reference, legal identities.
The Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC) integrates ALPR data with Shotspotter, social media monitoring tools, and CCTV feeds into a unified operator dashboard. The integration makes it possible to trace an individual’s movements throughout a protest day based on vehicle sightings alone.
Counter-measure: Use public transit or walk at least six blocks from a parking point. Do not share ride-share data. For vehicles that must be used, RF signal detection can identify active Bluetooth or GPS modules that may signal location independently.
Cell Phone Tracking: IMSI Catchers and Geofence Warrants
Published court documents from 2021 EFF litigation confirmed that federal agencies deployed IMSI catchers (Stingray devices) in proximity to protest zones in multiple cities, including Seattle. These devices mimic cell towers and force nearby phones to connect, harvesting IMEI numbers and cellular identities without court authorization.
Parallel to IMSI catchers, federal and state law enforcement routinely issue geofence warrants — demands served to Google for the device IDs of every phone present in a defined geographic area during a defined time window. A single geofence warrant for a six-hour protest can return thousands of device identifiers, which are then de-anonymized via subscriber data.
Counter-measure: The Faraday phone pouch blocks all cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and RFID signals. During transit to a protest zone while the phone is in the pouch, no IMSI capture or cell tower log is generated. Use a clean, pre-paid burner phone for on-ground communications via encrypted messaging.
Corporate Surveillance Infrastructure
Seattle’s protest surveillance was not conducted by government agencies in isolation. Protesters targeted Amazon and Palantir’s Seattle offices, explicitly citing those companies’ roles in providing the AI and data brokerage infrastructure used by ICE and other enforcement agencies.
Amazon’s Ring network — constituting a privately-owned camera grid with voluntary police integration — gives law enforcement access to footage from tens of thousands of residential cameras without judicial oversight. The EFF’s Atlas of Surveillance maps the full extent of corporate-government surveillance integration in Seattle.
Counter-measure: Awareness of the full surveillance ecosystem, not just sworn officers. Any camera in a protest neighborhood — doorbell, business security, ATM — becomes a potential evidence source. Adversarial pattern clothing and IR-LED garments provide consistent protection across heterogeneous camera networks.
Countermeasures Reference
| Threat | Documented Deployment | Counter |
|---|---|---|
| Aerial video (Guardian One) | King County Sheriff, 2020 | Cover, adversarial pattern |
| Clearview AI facial recognition | SPD, 2020-present | Masking + CV Dazzle |
| LRAD acoustic device | SPD, acquired Sept 2020 | NRR 30+ ear protection |
| ALPR network | Citywide, integrated with RTCC | Transit, no vehicle proximity |
| IMSI catchers (Stingrays) | Federal agencies, documented 2021 | Faraday bag |
| Geofence warrants | Federal/state, routine | Faraday bag + burner device |
| Ring/private cameras | Corporate-police partnership | IR-LED clothing |
Sources: Real Change News (2020); ACLU-WA Clearview demand letter (2020); GeekWire ALPR investigation (2021); EFF IMSI documentation; Atlas of Surveillance; Wikipedia LRAD entry; Common Dreams Amazon protest coverage.
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