SEATTLE — The Seattle Police Department rented cars from Hertz that were used by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement task force earlier this year, and then billed the federal government for the cost, according to invoices obtained and published on Friday, November 13, by the independent Seattle outlet HardPressed. The department would not say what the cars were used for.
Source: HardPressed
The invoices HardPressed published show SPD renting cars from Hertz in January and again in March, in each case for a monthly rental term, for use as part of a Homeland Security Investigations task force. HSI is the investigative arm of ICE and sits inside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. After renting the cars, SPD submitted an invoice to DHS seeking reimbursement, the records show.
A name that is not a company: 'Bangor Solutions'
The Hertz invoices are not made out to the Seattle Police Department. They are made out to a name HardPressed describes as a fake entity — 'Bangor Solutions' — carrying the same address as SPD headquarters on Fifth Avenue in downtown Seattle. In an update added the same day, HardPressed reported, from further records it obtained, that SPD has been using the 'Bangor Solutions' name to rent cars from Hertz since at least 2020, and that the 'PO Box' listed for Bangor Solutions is the address of SPD's own fiscal office.
Asked what the cars were used for, SPD declined to explain. 'We cannot provide any details about this because we aren't the agency conducting the investigation(s),' SPD Public Affairs Sergeant Patrick Michaud wrote to HardPressed. ICE did not immediately respond to the outlet's request for comment.
Source: HardPressed (SPD statement)
What the task force is, and what SPD officers do alongside it
Homeland Security Investigations is a subcomponent of ICE, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security. Numerous SPD officers work directly with HSI, HardPressed noted, and the U.S. Department of Justice publicly touted arrests stemming from Homeland Security Task Force investigations in both October and November of this year. WIRED has also reported that HSI agents monitored a Crimethinc event in Seattle earlier this year, as part of what WIRED described as far-reaching surveillance of left-wing activists.
Source: HardPressed / WIRED (as reported by HardPressed)
The policy line Seattle says it holds
The rentals sit in visible tension with the department's own written policy. SPD Manual section 6.020, revised June 1, 2026, states that SPD employees will not engage in or assist civil immigration enforcement, and that SPD resources will not be used or shared to assist civil immigration enforcement. The same policy says sworn employees who are members of federal task forces will continue in their normal partnerships — including with HSI — but will not participate in or be directed to augment ICE in operations, and that joint operations require written approval of the employee's Bureau Chief.
Source: Seattle Police Department Manual 6.020
SPD restated that position publicly on March 5, 2026, saying Seattle is a welcoming city, that SPD has no role in federal civil immigration enforcement, and that while it has no authority over federal agents, its officers will document incidents they are notified about and protect the rights of all people in the city.
Source: SPD Blotter, Mar 5 2026
A new mayor pulling the other way
The disclosure lands the same week Seattle's new mayor, Katie Wilson, announced the opposite posture: an executive order prohibiting federal immigration authorities from using city-owned and city-controlled property — parks, parking lots, plazas, vacant lots, garages and the Seattle Center — for immigration enforcement, and requiring Seattle police to investigate, verify and document reports of ICE activity, including on body-worn and in-car video. Wilson's package also includes $4 million for immigrant legal defence and community services and a 'Stand Together Seattle' initiative. Police Chief Shon Barnes said his officers do not have authority over federal agents or federal policy, but will document incidents when notified. The White House, in response, blamed local officials for refusing to help ICE take custody of people in jails, forcing agents into neighbourhoods instead.
Source: Reporting on Mayor Wilson's announcement, Nov 13 2026
The published records do not say what the rented cars were actually used for, which investigations they supported, how many rentals SPD has made under the 'Bangor Solutions' name since 2020, what the total cost and reimbursements were, or who approved the practice. They also do not establish whether any rental supported civil immigration enforcement — which SPD policy bars — rather than the criminal-investigations task-force work the policy allows. SPD has not answered those questions, and ICE had not responded when HardPressed published.
What is solid
- Invoices obtained from SPD's own records show Hertz rentals in January and March for an HSI task force, with reimbursement billed to DHS (HardPressed, Nov 13).
- SPD declined on the record to say what the cars were used for (Sgt. Patrick Michaud, via HardPressed).
- SPD policy 6.020 bars assisting civil immigration enforcement and bars using SPD resources for it, while expressly continuing federal task-force partnerships.
What is only claimed
- What the cars were used for — SPD has not said and ICE had not responded at publication.
- Whether any rental breached SPD policy or Washington law — not established by the records published so far.
What happens next
No hearing or official review of the rentals had been announced by the time HardPressed published on Friday afternoon, and ICE's response is still awaited. The questions now sitting with the city are concrete: a full accounting of 'Bangor Solutions' rentals since 2020, the investigations they served, and how that logistical support for an ICE task force fits a department policy — and a new mayor's executive order — built on keeping Seattle police out of immigration enforcement. For Seattle's immigrant communities, including the Punjabi and South Asian families of the Puget Sound region, the answer will decide how much distance really exists between the city's police and federal immigration operations.