The Seattle City Council looks poised to establish six “stay out” zones for drug crimes and one for prostitution, authorizing judges to bar people from the zones once they’ve been charged with or convicted of certain offenses and authorizing police to make arrests if they don’t comply.
The council’s Public Safety Committee voted 5-0 Tuesday to advance two bills — one aimed at drug activity in downtown, the Chinatown International District, Belltown, Pioneer Square, Capitol Hill and the University District. The other would create a zone along Aurora Avenue North targeting what the bill calls commercial sexual exploitation. That bill would also reestablish and revise a “prostitution loitering” crime that a previous Seattle council repealed in 2020.
The bills reflect a more aggressive approach toward law enforcement by City Attorney Ann Davison and council President Sara Nelson, and by multiple council members who were elected last year. They’ve vowed to change what they’ve described as an overly permissive approach by previous city leaders.
“Seattle is no longer a safe space to do your dirt,” Councilmember Rob Saka, from West Seattle, said Tuesday, arguing the bills will help police go after drug dealers and disrupt illicit markets concentrated in particular areas.
Final votes by the entire nine-person council are scheduled for Sept. 17, and changes could still be made. Opponents asked the committee to shelve the bills Tuesday, arguing banishment zones have been tried before, won’t reduce crime, will lead to discriminatory policing and will further marginalize vulnerable people without addressing the root causes of drug addiction, gun violence and sexual exploitation through new investments in social services.
Most of the dozens of public commenters who spoke at the start of the meeting made those points, including legal advocates, social services providers and some people who live in the proposed zones.
Seattle’s depleted police force, backlogged court system and understaffed jail are already struggling to respond to low-level offenses, even without adding new crimes to the books. Without access to treatment or housing, it’s common for people to cycle through jail and end up back where they started.
“You should be ashamed of yourselves for wasting people’s time and for failing to propose any real solutions to serious problems,” Austin Field, a King County public defender, told council members.
But the committee moved ahead with the “Stay Out of Drug Area” (SODA) bill sponsored by Councilmember Bob Kettle, from Queen Anne, and the “Stay Out of Area of Prostitution” (SOAP) law sponsored by Councilmember Cathy Moore, from North Seattle, siding with constituents like an Aurora-area high school parent and a downtown restaurant owner.
“Users are dying, businesses are suffering and the tax base is eroding,” with only drug dealers profiting, Wild Ginger’s Rick Yoder told the committee Tuesday. “Each day and night, I witness violence and scary behavior.”
More than 100 people signed up for public comment Tuesday. After an hour and a half, about 60 had spoken and Kettle closed the comment period. Some in the crowd objected to that and shouted, eventually leading Kettle to call police and suspend the meeting, which resumed about an hour later.
SODA bill
Under the SODA bill, proposed by Davison, a person could be ordered to stay out of a zone after being arrested for a crime with a “nexus” to illegal drug activity, such as drug dealing, drug use or a related assault. Seattle Municipal Court judges could issue an order as a condition of pretrial release or postconviction. Violating an order would be a gross misdemeanor.
Until recently, drug crimes were mostly handled by the King County Prosecutor’s Office. But a city law passed last year made public drug use a gross misdemeanor that’s handled by Seattle prosecutors in municipal court.
People with SODA orders would be allowed to take transit through the zones without deboarding. They could ask for exceptions to see relatives or attend appointments, and judges would be required to consider needs like housing, employment and services, according to an amendment approved Tuesday.
The Public Safety Committee initially considered a bill that would have established SODA zones in downtown and the CID only, but approved a series of amendments Tuesday expanding the CID zone and adding zones in Belltown, Pioneer Square, Capitol Hill and the University District.
Saka said the Pioneer Square zone would guard against potential “spillover” from the downtown and CID zones, seeming to acknowledge that some drug activity would likely shift rather than disappear.
State law allows cities to designate SODA zones. Such laws have withstood legal challenges, and cities like Auburn, Everett and Monroe already have them. From 2006 to 2010, judges issued stay-out orders for SODA zones that covered large swaths of Seattle; those zones weren’t set by legislation, so breaches were probation violations rather than stand-alone crimes
SOAP bill
Moore’s bill would reestablish and revise a prostitution loitering law against sex sellers and buyers. The old law was mostly enforced against women and girls selling sex, rather than buyers, and the council members who repealed it in 2020 said it was disproportionately harming people of color.
Under the new version, prostitution loitering would be a misdemeanor. Police could arrest sex sellers, but the bill would ask them to focus on enforcement against sex buyers while diverting sex sellers to supportive services. No one under 18 could be arrested for prostitution loitering.
The bill would also create a new gross misdemeanor called “promoting prostitution loitering,” which Moore hopes would help police bust pimps without needing to build up as much evidence against them. It would allow police to arrest people who repeatedly drive someone to a known area of prostitution (not including ride-hail or bus drivers) or repeatedly surveil someone engaging in prostitution loitering.
Lastly, Moore’s bill would establish a SOAP zone along Aurora between North 85th Street and North 145th Street, authorizing municipal court judges to issue “stay out” orders to sex buyers arrested for prostitution loitering and to people arrested for promoting prostitution loitering. The orders initially could have been applied to sex sellers. But she and colleagues passed an amendment Tuesday eliminating that part, in response to concerns raised by advocates who said sex sellers shouldn’t be targeted.
Aurora has, for decades, been the city’s epicenter of prostitution and remains a destination for local traffickers as well as those who shuttle women and girls along a West Coast circuit. Moore said she’s heard from residents about increasing levels of violence and youth recruitment along the corridor, casting her SOAP bill as an attempt to disrupt the commercial sex trade there.
Heated debate
Opponents of the SODA and SOAP bills accused council members of wanting to ban poor people from busy neighborhoods rather than improve public safety. They warned the bills would allow police to harass people for merely existing in a public space and would encourage racial profiling.
Organizations like the King County Department of Public Defense, Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, Legal Voice, Seattle Indian Health Board and Evergreen Treatment Services have come out against the bills, asking the council to instead boost funding for nonpolice interventions.
Although Moore has cited gun violence on Aurora as motivating her SOAP bill, a spokesperson from the Alliance for Gun Responsibility spoke against the bill Tuesday, saying it wouldn’t change “the social conditions that lead to sex trafficking.” Volunteers with the Green Light Project who work with street-based sex workers also spoke against the bill.
The Downtown Seattle Association has backed the SODA bill. Council members referenced conversations they’d held with other alarmed residents in less-public settings.
Two survivors of sex trafficking on Aurora invited by Moore to Tuesday’s meeting spoke up for the bill. They agreed with opponents that poverty is a root cause yet said that women and girls being exploited need the city to intervene to stop abuse by holding sex promoters and buyers accountable.
Council members described the SODA and SOAP bills as tools that wouldn’t end violence or drug addiction on their own but said the bills would give the city more tools to protect all residents.
Rather than immediately attach funding for services to support the bills, council members promised to address those needs in upcoming budget deliberations. The city is facing a deficit of more than $260 million.
