One month after major drug sting, downtown Seattle ‘flourishing’

SEATTLE -- Five stories above Seattle’s Westlake Park, Gail Love peered out over a balcony to admire the view.

In the plaza below, a violinist could be heard playing as dozens of people sat around enjoying the unusually warm and sunny day. A group of older men watched an intense game of chess, while a skateboarder flipped tricks nearby. The sidewalks surrounding the park were filled with passing shoppers and tourists.

But rewind just one month, and the view from that same balcony was much different.

“At least from observing, it looked as if maybe there was some drug things happening,” said Love, the director of human resources for Allrecipes, a Seattle-based recipe-sharing website that operates out of the building on the northeast corner of the park.

Since the company moved into the space in 2010, its roughly 200 employees have had a birds-eye view of everything that happens in Westlake – both the good and the bad.

“It wasn’t necessarily the cleanest or the safest place to be,” said Love.

In recent weeks, however, she said the park appears to be “flourishing and thriving.” She credits “Operation Crosstown Traffic,” a massive undercover sting that has so far led to the arrest of around 180 people, according to the Seattle Police Department.

Most of the individuals swept up in the sting, which was announced on April 23, are accused of selling drugs in the downtown core.

“Every single day we’ve had people – just citizens, residents, visitors — coming up to officers that they see and thanking them profusely,” said Capt. Chris Fowler, who is in charge of the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct.

Fowler said his officers have been stepping up their efforts downtown for some time, but that the operation was a major step toward eliminating open air drug markets that have entrenched themselves in the Pike-Pine corridor.

“I think a success is if we can get through a summer, if we can get through the next six to eight months and have some sense that if an officer wasn’t there during the day, it wouldn’t turn into what it was before,” Fowler said.

While the operation has had a visual impact on the 9 ½ block area around Pike Place Market and Westlake Park, issues remain.

Earlier this week, Q13 FOX went on patrol with officers downtown to get a sense of what’s happening on the streets at night.

Officers with the West Precinct’s Anti-Crime Team arrested two people accused of selling crack cocaine near Second Avenue and Pike Street – the very area that Operation Crosstown Traffic was supposed to clean up.

“We are still seeing the street-level drug activity,” said Seattle police Sgt. Bill Edwards. “It’s been entrenched in this area for years and years and years, so it’s an ongoing battle for us. It’s just, at this point, there’s a lot less of it to address.”

Edwards said individuals still engaging in criminal behavior in the area seem less willing to do so out in the open, which is a change from a month ago.

“We definitely are getting a sense that it has had an impact,” he said.

Of the 186 suspects identified during the operation, many have been charged criminally.

According to the most recent numbers provided by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, 26 individuals have been charged with felonies. Twenty four have been referred to Drug Diversion Court. Another 11 have been referred to LEAD, or Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion.

Yet another 11 individuals have been charged with misdemeanors, according to the Seattle City Attorney’s Office. Roughly have of those were originally charged with felonies, but struck a deal to have the cases expedited as misdemeanors.

Federal indictments have been made against another 37 people, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office dropping one of those cases in favor of state prosecution.

Still, some of those swept up in the operation have already found their way back onto the streets and into trouble.

Daryl Imburgia, who was arrested and charged with selling heroin to an undercover cop during the sting, was rearrested just days after being released from the King County Jail. According to an incident report, Imburgia was accused of stealing a laptop and then punching someone in the face in Pioneer Square when they tried to get it back.

The Seattle Police Department said it plans to keep a heavy presence in the area, while also focusing on other problem spots, such as Belltown and Occidental Park.

Meanwhile, Gail Love with Allrecipes said she is overjoyed at the progress that has been made in Westlake. She said the company once feared it would have to find a new location if problems persisted.

“We thank the city,” she said. “We’re just really happy with the changes and everything that they’ve done.”