Questions surround who will prosecute drug offenses in the city of Seattle after Tuesday’s failed City Council vote.
Unlike other cities across the state that uniformly adopt the entire state code, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison said Seattle needs to pass a separate measure to conform with the new state law.“It’s a humanitarian crisis, in my opinion, we need to have all available tools to interrupt and disrupt open-air drug use and meaningfully intervene with people’s lives, get them into treatment, and this was one of the available ways to do so,” Davison said.
The county also said prosecuting those crimes would require hiring more staff, and their primary focus is prosecuting felonies and the most serious crimes in the county. City officials made it clear public drug use is still illegal in the city of Seattle, and Seattle police can still arrest people for breaking drug laws. However, it’s still unclear who will prosecute those lower-level drug crimes in court.
I want to reiterate what I said from the dais, about my personal experience with this issue: I think it is generally proper for us to do it. But with the ending of a community court, without any insight into the implementation of this law, and with no guarantees that the Legislature’s intent for diversion and treatment would be prioritized, I cannot support this approach.
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