A roster of top Seattle business leaders and regional CEOs is demanding urgent action from City Hall on public safety, calling on Mayor Katie Wilson and the City Council to roll out a concrete 100-day action plan backed by measurable goals and transparent progress tracking.

In a letter sent Thursday, executives from major area employers — including Microsoft, Starbucks, Costco, F5, Alaska Airlines, Zillow, and others — urged city leaders to protect and expand public safety funding amid growing skepticism that the city currently has an effective strategy to address crime and homelessness.

The push centers on findings from an August joint public-opinion poll of registered Seattle voters, which revealed that while every proposed safety measure drew at least 75% support across all demographics, only 34% of respondents expressed confidence in the city’s current strategy.

Pointing to severe staffing shortages — noting Seattle has just 1.31 sworn officers per 1,000 residents, far below peer cities like Denver, San Francisco, and Boston — the signatories argued that budget decisions must directly align with measurable safety outcomes.

The effort was spearheaded by major regional business leadership organizations, including the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Challenge Seattle, and the Washington Roundtable. Their leaders — Joe Nguyễn, former Gov. Chris Gregoire, and Rachel Smith — jointly signed the appeal alongside dozens of local chief executives spanning technology, retail, healthcare, and sports franchises.

“Voters are asking for action, on a timeline, with results they can measure,” the coalition wrote in the letter, emphasizing that their recommendations reflect a broad consensus across the city. “This is not a narrow or partisan agenda, it is a shared baseline that Seattle residents and the business community are asking their elected leaders to deliver both now and as a sustained priority.”

The letter outlines a series of immediate and short-term actions the group is asking City Hall to enact, backed by overwhelming support in their poll:

CCTV surveillance: Activate CCTV cameras in Pioneer Square, the Stadium District, and other high-event areas to deter crime and assist law enforcement.

Foot and bike patrols: Establish regular police patrols on foot and bicycle in areas facing persistent public safety problems, specifically citing Little Saigon (90% poll support).

911 response accountability: Recommit to a standard 7-minute priority 911 response time, backed by transparent reporting when targets are missed (90% support). The letter noted data from Nordstrom showing only 29% of 911 calls from its flagship downtown store yielded a police response, compared to 100% at its Bellevue and Southcenter locations.

Drug treatment and diversion: Direct CARE Department specialists to offer treatment and shelter first, but require law enforcement to arrest and prosecute repeat offenders who repeatedly refuse help (82% support).

Open-air drug markets: Require SPD and the City Attorney to establish a clear, prioritized pathway for shutting down open-air drug markets (81% support).

Encampment bans and timelines: Institute a policy banning encampments within 250 feet of parks, playgrounds, or schools, and mandate that the city clear encampments in those zones within 72 hours (79% support).

Among those who signed the letter: Brad Smith, Vice Chair & President of Microsoft; Jeremy Wacksman, CEO of Zillow; François Locoh-Donou, CEO of F5; Matt McIlwain, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group; Julie Sandler, Co-founder & Venture Partner at PSL Ventures; Matt Oppenheimer, Chairman of Remitly; Erik Nordstrom, CEO & Co-President of Nordstrom; Brian Niccol, Chairman & CEO of Starbucks; Ron Vachris, CEO & President of Costco; Ben Minicucci, CEO & President of Alaska Air Group; Mike Sievert, Vice Chairman of T-Mobile; and Ada Healey, Chief Real Estate Officer at Vulcan Real Estate.

The business community’s coordinated push arrives during a pivotal moment for public safety policy in City Hall, where political tensions over policing and crime response have flared in recent weeks.

While overall violent crime and homicides in Seattle dropped during the first half of 2026 compared to last year, high-profile violent incidents continue to fuel public and commercial anxiety. Downtown, Belltown, and high-foot-traffic corridors have experienced recent spikes in gun violence and fatal altercations — including multiple homicides in Belltown and Westlake Park in early September alone.

At the same time, the Seattle Police Department continues to grapple with acute staffing shortages following years of officer departures exceeding hiring goals. The persistent deficit has left response times stretched thin, prompting deep frustration from major employers and pushing retail hubs to demand a more visible police presence.

Policy friction between the Council and Wilson’s administration has also intensified. Debate has centered on the rollout of public surveillance technologies — where the mayor’s office recently paused CCTV camera expansions pending a data privacy audit — as well as ongoing friction surrounding the leadership of the police department.

Responding to the letter, Wilson told GeekWire that her administration shares the business community’s commitment to public safety, noting that “many of the specific requests they made are well underway.”

Wilson highlighted expanded foot and bicycle patrols in neighborhoods like Little Saigon and Belltown, 3,500 police officer applications currently in the queue, and an upcoming gun violence reduction strategy set to roll out next week. While noting that SPD data shows homicides and shootings at 10-year lows, Wilson acknowledged public impatience.

“We have far too much crime and public disorder and people have a right to be frustrated,” she said. “I, like everyone in Seattle, want to see that progress happen faster and steadier.”

The safety campaign comes on the heels of a 127-page independent economic study commissioned by the city, which warned that while Seattle boasts an “almost peerless” tech workforce and key AI assets, its economy is in a fragile position due to heavy corporate concentration and tax policies that penalize senior hiring.

The study noted that Seattle’s tax base remains vulnerable if major employers opt to relocate or grow outside the city limits, reinforcing the business coalition’s argument that public safety is closely tied to the city’s long-term economic stability.

The SEC is preparing to hold a public roundtable on 24-hour trading, and while the announcement is focused on US equity markets rather than crypto, the direction of travel is hard to miss.

Traditional markets are being pushed toward a world that crypto already knows well: trading that does not neatly stop at 4 p.m., clearing systems that need to handle more continuous activity, broker-dealers that need overnight controls, and investors who increasingly expect access outside the old market day.

The SEC said the roundtable will take place on September 17, 2026, under File Number 4-913. The discussion will cover the operational and regulatory issues around extending US public market trading hours, including overnight trading, clearing requirements, national market system rules, broker-dealer responsibilities, operational resilience, and investor protection.

That may sound dry, but it is a serious market-structure question.

Crypto has been 24/7 from the beginning. Stocks, ETFs, and regulated public markets are now being forced to think about what always-on finance actually requires.

TL;DR

• The SEC will hold a public roundtable on 24-hour trading on September 17, 2026.
• The discussion is focused on US equity markets, not crypto directly.
• The topic matters because traditional markets are moving closer to always-on financial infrastructure.

Why 24-Hour Trading Is A Bigger Question Than Access

At first glance, extended trading sounds like a simple investor-access story.

Let people trade for longer. Let brokers open more hours. Let markets respond to news overnight. Give investors more flexibility.

But the real issue is infrastructure.

Markets do not work just because a trading screen is open. They need clearing, settlement, surveillance, liquidity, quoting obligations, risk controls, broker support, margin systems, customer protections, and operational staffing. If those systems are stretched across more hours, the entire market has to adapt.

That is why the SEC is looking at this through a roundtable rather than a casual policy note.

A 24-hour market can create benefits, but it can also create thinner liquidity, wider spreads, more volatile overnight moves, and new pressure on brokers and clearing firms. Retail investors may get more access, but they may also trade in worse conditions if market depth is weak outside normal hours.

Crypto traders understand that problem already.

A token may technically trade 24/7, but not every hour has the same liquidity. Weekend markets can be thinner. Sudden news can move prices aggressively. Risk never fully sleeps.

Crypto Is The Reference Point, Even If It Is Not The Target

The SEC’s announcement does not directly target crypto assets, and that needs to stay clear.

This is about US public market trading infrastructure. But crypto is still the obvious backdrop because it has normalized always-on market access for millions of traders.

Younger investors are used to checking Bitcoin or Ethereum prices at midnight, on Sunday, or during a holiday. Global markets are used to digital assets moving continuously. Brokers and exchanges know that investor behavior has changed.

That shift creates pressure on traditional markets.

If investors can trade crypto whenever they want, they eventually ask why equities and ETFs remain tied to old market hours. The answer is not that traditional markets are lazy. It is that the systems around equities are more regulated, more intermediated, and more dependent on coordinated infrastructure.

That is exactly why the SEC roundtable matters.

It asks whether the old system can stretch without breaking important protections.

Clearing And Broker-Dealer Rules Are The Hard Part

Trading hours are the visible layer. Clearing is the harder one.

If trades happen around the clock, clearing and risk systems need to support that activity. Brokers need to know how customer orders are handled overnight. Market makers need to decide when and how they quote. Exchanges need surveillance systems that can operate continuously.

Investor protection also becomes more complicated.

A retail trader placing an order at 2 a.m. may face a very different market than one trading during the normal session. If spreads are wider or liquidity is thin, execution quality can suffer. Regulators will want to understand whether disclosures, order handling rules, and best execution obligations remain strong enough.

Those are not theoretical concerns.

Crypto markets have shown both the appeal and danger of constant access. Always-on trading gives users freedom, but it also removes natural pauses. There is no guaranteed cooling-off period. Markets can move while people sleep.

Traditional Finance Is Learning From Crypto’s Rhythm

One of the more interesting parts of the 24-hour trading debate is that traditional finance is not simply copying crypto. It is trying to absorb the parts investors like while keeping the protections regulators demand.

That is harder than it sounds.

Crypto’s always-on nature developed without the same market structure that surrounds US equities. There are fewer closing auctions, no single national market system equivalent, different custody models, and very different investor protections.

US equity markets cannot just flip a switch and become crypto-style 24/7 markets.

But the pressure is real.

ETF trading, global investor demand, retail app behavior, and cross-market volatility all make longer trading hours more likely over time. The SEC roundtable gives regulators, exchanges, brokers, and investors a chance to examine what that world requires before it becomes standard.

For crypto, the story is less direct but still meaningful.

It shows that always-on finance has moved from a crypto-native oddity to a mainstream market-structure question. Traditional markets are now debating how much of that model they can safely adopt.

That does not mean rules have changed yet. It means the conversation has moved into the center of US market policy.

This article is based on the SEC’s announcement of its public roundtable on 24-hour trading.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

This report is based on information released in disclosures at primary source documentation.