(Image: City of Seattle)
After rushed legislation that lacked adequate resources for treatment and diversion failed at the Seattle City Council, the city’s leaders are reshaping efforts to crack down on public drug use and enable the city attorney to prosecute drug use and possession on Seattle’s streets.
Monday, Mayor Bruce Harrell appointed a 24-member work group “uniting the four corners of Seattle government” – the Mayor’s Office, Seattle City Council, Seattle Municipal Court, and Seattle City Attorney – along with officials from law enforcement, diversion programs, and service provision, and “other subject matter experts to advance effective and sustainable solutions addressing illegal drug use in public spaces.”
The new Fentanyl Systems Work Group is hoped to shape a more robust plan after legislation to move forward on a plan focused on City Attorney Ann Davison’s prosecution duties fell short in a narrow city council vote over the plan’s lack of investment in city resources for treatment and diversion and a history of drug enforcement that has consistently and disproportionately targeted people of color and the homeless.
“We are committed to addressing the deadly public health crisis playing out on our streets, holding dealers accountable for trafficking illegal drugs harming our communities, and advancing innovative health strategies to help those struggling with substance use disorder,” Harrell said in the announcement.
“There is a time for appropriate constitutional arrests when people are posing a threat to others,” Harrell said. “However, when people are a threat only to themselves, they need compassionate treatment.”
The work group is hoped to create a more complete plan for the city — but it will also slow the process. Still, the Harrell administration said it expects to submit new legislation “in the coming weeks” to “reconcile Seattle Municipal Code with state law on public consumption of illegal drugs and describe and codify how that law will be applied.”
The new state law making low level drug crimes in Washington a gross misdemeanor and giving the state a harder stance on drug law penalties goes into effect July 1st. In the meantime, Seattle Police can continue to arrest people for drug crimes and refer offenders to the county for possible charges.
Harrell said Monday the path to the proposed legislation will include a subset of the larger Fentanyl Systems Work Group to “define solutions, improve system coordination, and develop implementation strategies” while “the larger work group begins to assess diversion and treatment systems.” The group is expected to “expand to include additional stakeholders, including public health partners and public and private treatment providers,” Harrell said.
Current members of the group will include:
- Seattle Municipal Court Presiding Judge Faye Chess
- Seattle Municipal Court Judge Damon Shadid
- Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison
- Seattle City Councilmember and Public Safety Committee Chair Lisa Herbold
- Seattle City Councilmember Andrew Lewis
- Seattle City Councilmember Sara Nelson
- Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss
- Seattle Police Department Chief Adrian Diaz
- Seattle Fire Department Chief Harold Scoggins
- Civilian-Assisted Response and Engagement Department Chief Reba Gonzales
- Seattle Human Services Department Director Tanya Kim
- Seattle Office of Civil Rights Director Derrick Wheeler-Smith
- Seattle and King County NAACP President Darrell Powell
- Purpose Dignity Action Co-Executive Director Lisa Daugaard
- REACH Director of Community Justice Brandie Flood
- Deputy City Attorney Scott Lindsay
- Criminal Division Chief Natalie Walton Anderson
- SPD Captain Dan Nelson
- SPD Lieutenant Robert Brown
- Seattle Human Services Department Deputy Director Michael Bailey
- Purpose Dignity Action Director of Engagement and Development Fé LopezGaetke
- LEAD Senior Project Manager Sean Blackwell
- REACH Director of Integrated Care Michelle Conley
- LEAD Program Supervisor Devin Majkut
The effort comes amid continued efforts for the city to address its ongoing crises of homelessness and street disorder and under the growing impact of increasing addiction and overdoses due to the wide availability of relatively cheap and powerful drugs like fentanyl. Around 100 people a month have died of drug overdoses or alcohol poisoning in King County so far in 2023, totals officials say will continue to rise.
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“After rushed legislation that lacked adequate resources for treatment and diversion…”. Gee, editorialize much?
And the best way to ensure nothing of substance gets done in a reasonable time period is to gather that many people at the podium. Classic Seattle process involving much arm waving, virtue signaling, and an unfortunate and untimely result. In other words, political cover for the fortunate few.
Agree! I think we should just wait until we (hopefully) have a more centrist City Council this fall, and then re-submit the legislation which recently failed, perhaps with some tweaks to ensure adequate inpatient treatment for those arrested/prosecuted.
What a joke. Just enforce the state law like everyone else and stop grandstanding. Vote out Andrew Lewis and Tammy Morales so we can get the city back on track.
Step 1: Send the boots into 12th and Jackson and get to work.
Step 1: Remove ALL tents
Step 2: If someone refuses treatment, use involuntary treatment / commitment laws to ensure that they’re getting the help they need
Step 3: Prosecute anyone who breaks laws blatantly and repeatedly (especially theft + public hard drug use)
Rinse and repeat until conditions improve.
This is not hard.
All three of your steps are actually incredibly hard, particularly in the given circumstances where there is not enough money nor beds available for step 2…
This isn’t a law enforcement issue, it’s a public health issue, and until we treat it as one our solutions are only topical and the underlying problem will continue to fester
Fentanyl burns while the mayor’s office fiddles.
Lisa Daugaard contributed to the current Seattle crisis with her failed programs then moved out of town. Why are we letting people that don’t live in Seattle and thus don’t have to deal with the consequences of their failed programs inflict their social experiments on us?
She is also highly over-represented in this work group since LEAD, REACH and PDA are all her organizations.