The Seattle City Council passed two new laws on Tuesday meant to crack down on public drug use and sales and on prostitution.
The first creates Stay Out of Drug Areas (SODA) in the city core and the U District that allow judges to bar people accused of certain drug crimes from entering.
The bill, introduced by City Attorney Ann Davison and sponsored by Councilmember Bob Kettle, passed 8 to 1, with Councilmember Tammy Morales voting no.
The second, which establishes a prostitution loitering law and a Stay Out of Area of Prostitution (SOAP) zone along Aurora Avenue in north Seattle, is intended to have a similar effect on prostitution and related violence. It was sponsored by Councilmember Cathy Moore and passed 8 to 1, with Morales again the lone no.
Supporters, including business owners and residents around the SODA and SOAP zones, acknowledge that the zones and loitering bans are not a silver-bullet solution, but argue that they are necessary to disrupt entrenched drug markets and prostitution around the city. Detractors, including homelessness advocates, sex-worker advocates, public defenders and criminal/legal reformers, argue the bills will only harm vulnerable people and shuffle the problem elsewhere without making a real impact on the disorder and crime they seek to fix.
Seattle has experimented with SODA zones in decades past, and had a prostitution loitering law on the books. The City Council voted unanimously in 2020 to repeal its prostitution law, citing its disproportionate impact on low-income people and people of color. The repeal was sponsored by former Councilmember Alex Pedersen, at the time one of the body’s more conservative members.
The reinstatement of the laws highlights the ongoing tension between the new City Council majority’s emphasis on law and order and Seattleites who want the city to continue leading on progressive policy experimentation.
Stay Out of Drug Areas
Under the new SODA law, Seattle Municipal Court judges will be able to issue SODA zone exclusion orders to people charged with or convicted of misdemeanor drug offenses. They can also ban someone from a SODA zone who’s been charged with or convicted of assault, harassment, theft, criminal trespass, property destruction or unlawful use or possession of weapons if the judge finds a link between that offense and illegal drug activity.
Seattle Municipal Court judges cannot impose SODA bans on people charged with or convicted of drug dealing because dealing is a felony and the purview of the King County Prosecutor.
Violation of a SODA order would be a gross misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum of 364 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $5,000.
City Attorney Davison proposed the initial SODA legislation in early August with two zones outlined: Downtown, centered at Third Avenue and Pike Street, and the Chinatown-International District, centered at 12th Avenue and Jackson Street.
Amendments from Councilmembers Kettle, Rob Saka, Tanya Woo and Joy Hollingsworth expanded the boundaries of the Chinatown-International District SODA and added additional SODA zones in Belltown, Capitol Hill, the U District and Pioneer Square.
According to a memo drafted by the Council’s policy analysts, the new law is meant to give Seattle police officers new authority to engage with people in drug-market hotspots in an effort to break them up.
But in the same memo, the authors say they have not “found any rigorous evaluations suggesting that the use of SODA orders (when issued by judges and comprehensively enforced by police departments) have the effect of improving public order, public safety, quality of life and economic vibrancy.” The analysis continues that exclusion orders may encourage recidivism without addressing underlying drug dependency; could just move drug markets elsewhere in the city; and could open the door for discriminatory policing.
“I agree we must start with compassion, to have empathy for those afflicted,” said Kettle at the Sept. 17 Council meeting. “We must also have the wisdom to look at the whole of communities, the whole of neighborhoods. Neighbors have been assaulted, placed under constant threat and unable to have community. He continued, “This bill … will not solve in itself what we’re facing with the drug markets. But it will help disrupt the drug trade, building on the lessons of previous editions.”
Councilmember Dan Strauss brought three last minute amendments to the SODA bill that garnered unanimous support from his colleagues. The amendments require the city to collect data and do regular analysis of the SODA zones to look for unintended consequences. The Public Safety Committee will also have to reevaluate the policy every two years.
Stay Out of Area Prostitution and loitering
Spearheaded by Councilmember Moore, who represents north Seattle’s District 5, the new SOAP and prostitution loitering law is meant to disrupt Aurora’s pervasive issues with prostitution, sex trafficking and associated gun violence. The law reinstates Seattle’s misdemeanor crime of prostitution loitering, which can be committed by adult sellers and buyers of sex. Police officers could make arrests after witnessing someone “repeatedly beckoning to, stopping or attempting to stop passersby in conversation; repeatedly stopping or attempting to stop vehicles,” according to Council policy analysis.
The new law adds additional circumstances in which police could stop someone for prostitution loitering including repeatedly approaching a motor vehicle, leaning into the vehicle and engaging in conversation with the driver.
In addition, the law creates a new crime of “promoting loitering for the purpose of prostitution” intended to crack down on pimps and sex traffickers.
Finally, the new law creates a prostitution banishment zone along Aurora from North 85th Street to North 145th Street and several blocks on each side of Aurora. Like SODA, the SOAP law allows a Seattle Municipal Court judge to ban someone charged with or convicted of prostitution loitering, prostitution, promoting loitering for the purpose of prostitution or patronizing a prostitute. Someone could also be banned from the SOAP zone if charged with or convicted of a crime occurring in the zone found by the court to have a connection to prostitution.
Moore has insisted that her intent is for officers to focus enforcement on people buying sex and those trafficking prostitutes. For prostitutes and sex trafficking victims, Moore wants officers to divert people to services instead of arresting them.
The City Council does not have the authority to dictate how police enforce a law, but an amendment from Moore introduced at the Sept. 10 public safety committee meeting added language emphasizing Moore’s intent and requiring new training for Seattle police officers on working with victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
"It is not unfair for this council to ask that this council do something to make everyone in the community safe,” said Moore at the Sept. 17 meeting. “The neighbors in the community safe; the businesses safe; the kids going to and from elementary school, middle school, and high school safe; and even the women being trafficked and prostituted on the street.”
Hollingsworth brought a last-minute amendment to the bill that will require collection and analysis of data about how many people are arrested under the prostitution loitering law. Data collection will include number of arrests, referrals to the city attorney, prosecutions and case dismissals.
Strauss brought three amendments to the SOAP bill akin to the SODA amendments that require data collection and ongoing analysis of SOAP’s impacts. The SOAP amendments also passed 9-0.
Tensions on display
SODA and SOAP have garnered significant pushback during City Council public comment periods, with opponents laying out arguments against the bills and occasionally hurling insults at councilmembers.
The conflict was on full display at the Sept. 10 Public Safety Committee meeting. More than 60 people gave public testimony, with only about a dozen expressing support for SODA and SOAP.
Committee Chair Bob Kettle ended public comment after 90 minutes, before everyone who’d signed up to testify had an opportunity to speak. As has happened several times this year, ending the public comment period early resulted in chants of “Let them speak” from some people in Council chambers and other jeers.
In response to the shouting, the Councilmembers took a recess. When they came back, the chanting resumed, so the legislators took a longer recess and called in police officers to clear protestors. Ultimately, officers removed people without arrest, but the ordeal took more than an hour.
Opponents argued that the bills were performative actions from the Council that won’t stop drug dealing, prostitution or associated crime and disorder, but will harm people with substance-use disorders or those engaged in prostitution, making it harder for them to access services.
That list of detractors included representatives from the Coalition for Rights & Safety for People in the Sex Trade, Sexual Violence Law Center, Strippers are Workers, Alliance for Gun Responsibility, Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, Evergreen Treatment Services, Purpose Dignity Action, ACLU Washington, the King County Department of Public Defense and more.
Supporters included the Downtown Seattle Association, the Seattle Hotel Association, The More We Love and residents and business owners who live or operate near the proposed zones.
They argued that the gun violence, crime and disorder Downtown and in north Seattle necessitated action from the city, though many also stated a preference that the city increase investments in services for people with substance-use disorders and those engaged in the sex trade.
The Sept. 17 Council meeting again brought significant public testimony. More than 100 people gave testimony over two and a half hours of the meeting. A greater percentage of the public spoke in favor of SOAP and SODA than had on Sept. 10, but the majority of testimony still opposed to the new laws.
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