Ann Davison on SOAP laws curbing Seattle sex trafficking: ‘The goal is disruption’

Legislation aimed at targeting sex trafficking and gun violence throughout the city is expected to have its fate decided by the Seattle City Council Tuesday.

Dubbed the Stay Out of Area of Prostitution (SOAP) proposal, it would create a prostitution loitering law that would primarily target the buyers of commercial sex, and the pimps operating the sex rings.

The previous prostitution loitering law Seattle practiced was unanimously struck by the Seattle City Council in 2020 for disproportionately targeting people of color.

The legislation, through two ordinances, would also create Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) or SOAP zones that would bar people with drug and prostitution-related arrests from entering.

More on Aurora Ave. prostitution: A group of residents tries to crack down on prostitution, but is it legal?

“I think this is an important additional tool for the law enforcement officers that we do have,” Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison said on KIRO Newsradio’s “The Gee and Ursula Show” Tuesday morning. “We are trying to help make sure that we have a recovery of our public spaces so that they are safer, accessible and available for everybody to go through them, to get to where they need to go and to enhance safety in the process.”

The SOAP and SODA zones, whose ordinance was put forward by Davison to the Seattle City Council, would exist in areas along Aurora Avenue in addition to pockets in Chinatown-International District and Downtown Seattle.

Davison noted to “The Gee and Ursula Show” that the proposed zones would occupy less than 0.5% of the approximate 83 square miles the city encompasses. For Aurora Avenue, the potential SOAP zone would stretch from North 85th Street to North 145th Street.

“Sadly, we are known across the country, if not the world, for prostitution and sex trafficking in the north end of Seattle,” Davison said.

Comparing this bill with the 2020 legislation

The difference between the current proposed legislation and the repealed 2020 bill is diversion, and not prosecution, is the preferred approach for people engaging in prostitution.

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“I think it’s important to understand our police has been through a very rigorous consent decree process, and our police officers are different than maybe what you see in other cities, and we should be proud of that,” Davison said.

The legislation also includes an entirely new offense of promoting loitering for purposes of prostitution to target sex traffickers. The offense is a gross misdemeanor.

“Think about our neighbors up there who are trying to get their kids to school, who are having to explain what is happening, what they witness around the sex trafficking and prostitution,” Davison said. “I think it’s vital that we say, ‘We hear you. We see you. We understand the community safety and the community social modeling that you want.’ The public spaces should be available for everybody, and that is the priority is safety.”

‘We need to be able to get through town’

The SOAP and SODA zones were created from referral data collected and distributed by the Seattle Police Department, but for Davison, she believes anyone who has lived in Seattle as long as she has already knows where the areas within the city exist.

“We need to be able to get through town,” Davison said. “We need to be able to get to the bus stop and not be confronted with what’s happening with an open-air drug market.”

“Critics say that’s just going to move them elsewhere, and they’re just going to keep moving because you’re not really addressing the problem,” co-host Ursula Reutin said to Davison.

Ursula on Aurora Ave. crime: Aurora Ave. arrests just a step to fight sex trafficking in Seattle

“That is something we have to watch, which is why we will be tracking that data very extensively,” Davison responded. “But again, that’s not a reason not to do something when we do know that these open-area drug markets are so entrenched in these locations. We all know it.

“We have large conventions coming to town. We want to make sure that we can help the economic revitalization and make our workers safe, our visitors safe, our residents safer, and say that is not something that we should just leave as is,” Davison continued. “The goal is disruption, to make the public spaces safer.”

The Seattle City Council is expected to vote on whether to approve the legislation Tuesday.

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.