Seattle Mayor says city creating drug enforcement plan consistent with state's new law

Seattle begins new plan to address drug crimes

With Seattle City Council's rejecting the City Attorney's push to prosecute open-air drug use, the question now is: who is going to see that the state's new narcotics law is enforced?

SEATTLE - With Seattle City Council rejecting the city attorney's push to prosecute public drug use and possession, there is question who is going to see that the state’s new narcotics law is enforced.

Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison proposed the legislation, CB 120586, to city council. It would have updated municipal code to classify drug possession and public use as gross misdemeanors. Approving the proposal would have adopted the state’s new law on controlled substances, declared during a special legislative session and signed by the governor in May 2023. This would have given the city attorney’s office authority to prosecute charges.

Mayor Bruce Harrell gave remarks Wednesday, after city council rejected the proposal.

"I’m not on the city council. My position was not to support it or defend it. My position was to make sure the legislative process worked out. I would have done it differently, if you want to know, quite honestly. I would have had a committee meeting to have some robust discussions to listen to the experts and the health community. How can you not?" said Harrell.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said there is significant misinformation circulating on this issue, however state law is clear. RCW 39.34.180 states each city is responsible for the prosecution of misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor offenses committed in their jurisdiction.

The office explained some people were incorrectly looking at the first part of that RCW, which says ‘each county, city and town’ and presuming that King County immediately can file gross misdemeanors – but that is not the case. The law is clear that each city is responsible for misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor offenses in their jurisdiction – meaning that the City of Seattle is responsible for misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor prosecutions within the city.

Without the legislation, Seattle Police Department can still make arrests and refer cases to the county prosecutor’s office for gross misdemeanor charges, but only if a contract is negotiated and agreed upon, including the costs for those services paid to King County by the City of Seattle. An email from King County Prosecuting Attorney Lessa Manion shared this with each councilmember.

"State law may technically allow for a municipality to enter into a contract for [county] prosecution services, but the contract would need to be negotiated and agreed upon," said Manion.

Mike Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, said a problem SPD is still dealing with is a staff shortage.

"We’re just not getting quality candidates to fill the position. And you couple this fentanyl crisis, this vote, the lack of a contract, the lack of public political support for police officers—it’s a recipe for disaster. We’re seeing it, we’re witnessing it first hand in this city and it’s totally avoidable. We just want people who want to lead that are reasonable. Right now, the council’s not leading. I think they’ve put Seattle in a serious, serious problem for the immediate future. And yesterday’s vote was tragic," said Solan.

Manion said she supported Davison’s proposal and hoped the city attorney’s office would be granted authority to charge gross misdemeanor drug crimes. Manion mentioned another challenge her office has is a lack of staff and funding to take on the misdemeanors, on top of all the felony cases that take priority.

Harrell said the city was working on a solution.

"We lead with intervention, we lead with treatment," the mayor said.

In collaboration with the city attorney, council and courts, Harrell said the city would create a plan that addressed treatment and enforcement.

"We’re not leading with let’s just arrest everybody. That is not the spirit of what came out of the Blake Decision. So, I’ll meet with the city council members. We’ll meet with law enforcement and we’ll figure this out together. And I look forward to these discussions. We’ll be doing that work this month in June. And so, in July, you’ll see the outcome of this work," said Harrell.

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Councilmember Andrew Lewis voted no, swaying the council’s 5-4 vote. Wednesday, he said the collaborative plan this month is to:

Develop a successor therapeutic court to community court.
Develop and fully-fund treatment-based pre-file diversion.
Work with Mayor Harrell to scale and deploy the plans outlined in his executive order on Seattle’s fentanyl crisis.

Lewis said after that work is complete, then the city will propose legislation that is consistent with the new state law.