As SPD relies on borrowed tech, King County prosecutor warns of legal and privacy tradeoffs

The scene of the officer-involved shooting and standoff with 53-year-old suspect and ex-convict, Daniel Jolliffe, at the Broadmoor Manor apartment complex near Seattle’s Madison Park Neighborhood, on June 20, was chaotic.

Body-worn cameras revealed three Seattle Police Officers who responded to a 911 domestic violence call there, found the woman victim screaming after being shot in her back. As they tried to help the victim, Jolliffe ran upstairs to the second-floor unit and started firing a handgun at the officers through a window. Officers returned fire before retreating for cover with the victim.

However, during those critical moments and hours-long standoff with Jolliffe, who was armed and actively shooting from inside the apartment, SPD was forced to ask other law enforcement agencies for reinforcements, including technology, like drones to surveil the scene and open a line of communication with Jolliffe.

“Some of our partnering agencies had a drone trying to determine whether we could see or communicate with him,” Seattle Police Department (SPD) Chief Shon Barnes said at the scene.

Because a strict Seattle ordinance limits how SPD can deploy surveillance technology, it often forces them to rely on others during life-threatening emergencies.

KIRO Newsradio spoke with King County Prosecutor Gary Ernsdorff about the complex challenges SPD faces using surveillance technology like drones.

Ernsdorff emphasized that while modern tools can help police solve crimes and keep communities safe, their use must be carefully balanced with public concerns about privacy and government overreach.

“We are living in a time with an extremely accelerated rate of technological development. We want to use new technology, but we want to use it cautiously,” Ernsdorff explained. “Embracing technology, to me, is critical for the safety of the community, for really solving crime and making sure that we’re doing everything we can to preserve the safety of the community, so it’s not something that we should shy away from.”

Ordinance requires SPD to ask permission to buy or use surveillance tools

Years ago, Seattle’s City Council adopted a surveillance ordinance in response to public concerns that such technology could lead to pervasive surveillance or even government spying. The ordinance mandates that SPD must ask permission to buy or use surveillance tools, like drones.

Ernsdorff acknowledged the use of such technologies often comes down to public trust and that law enforcement must walk a fine line between using technology effectively and respecting the community’s threshold for how much surveillance is too much.

“When law enforcement tries to hide techniques, that’s when the public gets suspicious,” Ernsdorff said. “When we’re using technology, we want to make sure that we’re in line with where the public wants law enforcement to be.”

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, law enforcement agencies like SPD are often caught in a difficult position. On one hand, emerging technologies offer powerful new tools to track down and prosecute criminals. On the other hand, the pace of innovation often outpaces governments’ ability to create clear, consistent rules for how those tools should be used. As a result, police departments are left navigating a legal and ethical gray area, trying to embrace technology to protect the public while waiting for policymakers to catch up.

More and more, the responsibility for defining how surveillance technology can be used is falling to the courts. But legal rulings often hinge on lengthy appeals processes, meaning it can take years before clear guidance emerges.

King County prosecutor: ‘There’s often no rule book for them to follow’

“So, that’s really difficult, because law enforcement wants to follow the rules, but with new technology, there’s often no rule book for them to follow,” Ernsdorff said. “When we’re talking about new technologies today, we might not get guidance from a reviewing court for four, five, six years or more.”

In King County, Ernsdorff said he and his colleagues rely on a few core principles when building cases that involve law enforcement technology. Their approach centers on striking a careful balance between leveraging tech to pursue justice and safeguarding individual privacy. That means seeking judicial oversight — such as obtaining search warrants — before deploying certain tools and ensuring that their use of technology is both transparent and accountable every step of the way.

However, he added in all his years of working with police, while he believes in maintaining guardrails for officers, he’s never met an officer who wanted to use a drone or other device to spy on a private citizen.

“Law enforcement doesn’t have the time or the bandwidth to use technology to spy on or otherwise interfere with the privacy rights of uninvolved citizens,” Ernsdorff shared.

During the June 20 standoff, SPD deployed what technology they had, like their Arson Bomb Squad robot, even though it’s designed to handle explosives. Toward the end of the standoff, according to a police source, officers from a neighboring agency flew a drone inside the apartment to locate Jolliffe and prevent a SWAT team from walking blindly into potential danger.

When officers entered the room, they said they found Jolliffe dead. According to a King County Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy report, the 53-year-old died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Local police departments respond for assistance

Seattle Police did tell KIRO Newsradio six different police departments and sheriff’s offices responded to their requests for assistance. However, no Seattle City Council members responded to our request for comment, and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office did not answer our questions. Ironically, all of the partner agencies involved in that standoff did reply. Their responses helped shed light on how SPD may have used those surveillance devices to try to end the standoff quickly and safely.

The Clyde Hill Police Department said it deployed a drone at the scene to watch the apartment.

“We had an officer who deployed a drone at the scene to assist with monitoring a potential exit,” spokesperson Brittney Rhodes shared.

Mountlake Terrace Police Chief Pete Caw told KIRO Newsradio, “We did indeed contribute a drone and a drone pilot to the SPD.”

“I can confirm that SeaTac Police, one of our contract cities, sent two drones, or Unmanned Aircraft Systems, and pilots as support for this at the request of Seattle Police,” Communications Manager for the King County Sheriff’s Office, Brandyn Hull, stated in an email.

A Bellevue Police Department spokesperson confirmed it sent a SWAT team and other technology assets.

And in an email, the Edmonds Police Department said it also deployed a drone. Commander Shane Hawley added that drones are becoming more commonplace in law enforcement and they’re a good tool to look for barricaded suspects, “because the only thing in danger is a small piece of equipment”.

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