SEATTLE — Under new legislation proposed Thursday by Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison, Seattle judges could bar individuals from parts of downtown and the Chinatown International District if they're charged with any activity found to have a "nexus" with "illegal drug activity."
The bill would represent an expansion of legal authority for prosecutors, police and judges to move people out of parts of the city where the drug trade is robust and associated crime is common. Davison, who was elected on a platform of using the legal system to address disorder, has frequently vowed to shift the city's attitude toward drug use and low-level crime to a more assertive posture.
"We need to be providing mechanisms that all actors in this public safety space can (use to) help disrupt criminal enterprises that has taken hold in locations that are too established in our city," Davison said.
At the same time, the bill is likely to raise equity concerns and questions about how enforceable or sustainable such action might be. Seattle police already struggle to respond to even felony-level crime and many of those who frequent the hot spot areas on Third Avenue or Jackson Street already have outstanding warrants. Without access to treatment or housing, it's common for people to cycle through jail and end up back where they started.
Anita Khandelwal, director of the King County Department of Public Defense, said the zones are a rehashing of strategies the city has tried before.
"We keep trying variations on the same theme, and we keep getting the same results," she said.
The bill, establishing so-called "stay out of drug areas," or SODAs, could be applied as a condition of pretrial release, before the person has been convicted of the crime, or postconviction.
One area would be centered downtown between University and Stewart streets, east of First Avenue. The other would be in Little Saigon, from Dearborn Street to north of Jackson Street.
If a person who's been ordered to stay out of those areas ignores the order, the maximum penalty for the gross misdemeanor is 364 days in jail and/or a $5,000 fine.
Individuals would be allowed to take transit through the areas, so long as they don't de-board. Should they have family or job opportunities within the designated zones, they could ask a judge for an exception.
Davison's proposal is indicative of the political shift in City Hall over the last year. In 2020, the City Council unanimously repealed the city's drug loitering laws, which allowed similar enforcement of drug laws in the city.
Following Mayor Bruce Harrell's landslide election in 2021, the council stepped in to once again make drug use illegal, mimicking state legislation after the state Supreme Court invalidated the previous drug use law as unconstitutional.
The latest incarnation of City Hall is the most bullish in years on leveraging police and court resources to achieve their safety goals, particularly as they intersect with areas that are highly trafficked by tourists.
"The difference is that we have a new council," said Councilmember Bob Kettle.
Under state law, cities in Washington are allowed to designate certain neighborhoods as "stay out of drug areas." The laws have so far withstood all legal challenges and cities such as Auburn, Everett and Monroe all have them on the books.
Seattle's legal system is already buckling under the weight of case backlogs, staff shortages and booking restrictions in county jails. In roughly half of all pretrial hearings in Seattle Municipal Court, the defendant does not show, according to court data, leading to additional warrants and charges with only limited recourse for judges, attorneys and police to track them down.
Police, meanwhile, have triaged their responses to focus on more serious crime because of staffing shortages.
Kettle said he believes the department and interim police Chief Sue Rahr will buy into this approach.
"We know we need to take action," he said. "She knows that we need to take action, and the men and women of the Seattle Police Department do too."
Khandelwal questioned why this was the best use of police resources.
"We're undermining our collective safety and pulling resources away from where they should go," she said.
The proposed legislation comes out of a recent report from the city auditor that recommended the city focus more on specific locations to wrap its arms around frequent drug use and the correlating misdemeanor crime.
Council President Sara Nelson said this helps achieve that.
"This is going to give us an additional tool to say no, you cannot be here," she said.
Purpose Dignity Action, a nonprofit organization that runs several outreach programs in downtown and the CID, said in a statement that staff appreciated the gravity of the problem Davison is trying to address. But, the organization said, previous "stay out of drug areas" have heightened racial disparities in the legal system while failing to improve conditions in those areas. University of Washington professor Katherine Beckett, who has researched no-trespass areas in the past, echoed that sentiment Thursday, saying her research has not found them to be effective.
"But the most troubling aspect of SODAs is that they prohibit future, otherwise-lawful conduct — just being present in a place, and doing nothing wrong," said Purpose Dignity Action's statement.
After months of settling into their place in City Hall, the new council — six of nine took office this year — suddenly has a very full agenda with limited time to act. Just hours after Davison announced her proposal, Councilmember Cathy Moore introduced legislation to crack down on prostitution on Aurora Avenue. The council is also still trying to pass new legislation regulating the city's minimum wage and pay for app-based delivery drivers and could soon propose a suite of changes to landlord-tenant laws in the city.
Typically, legislating ends in October, when the council turns its full attention to the budget. With a two-week recess in August, that leaves it about six weeks to act.
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