‘You just make it worse’: Former King County Sheriff criticizes removal of SODA, SOAP enforcement
Jan 5, 2026, 6:50 PM
New Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans promised that she would not enforce ordinances related to drugs, prostitution, and loitering in Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) and Stay Out of Area of Prostitution (SOAP) zones in Seattle.
Former King County Sheriff John Urquhart pushed back on Evans’ promise not to enforce ordinances in SODA and SOAP zones, questioning what other tactic the city would use to fix the problem.
“The question is, what’s our tactic going to be? What’s going to work, what isn’t going to work? What you’re looking for is some way to help these people. You leave them on the street, leave them using drugs, you’re not helping them at all. You just make it worse,” Urquhart said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “There are other victims out there, who are the public, the Jane and John Does that are going about their daily business. They’re victims of this, too.”
Urquhart mentioned that Seattle is “going backwards” in terms of how the city plans to handle its rampant drug problem, and expressed support for the current programs put in place to provide drug treatment.
“There are at least 12 diversion programs in King County. Most of them, the government doesn’t even look to see if they work or not. That’s a huge problem,” Urquhart said. “SOAP is fantastic. SOAP was a tool [SeaTac] used, and they used it very, very well. I was the first narcotics and prostitution detective hired by SeaTac back in 1992. I enforced that SOAP ordinance like you wouldn’t believe, and it worked.
“It’s bad enough with the open-air drug dealing; you can’t walk down the street in some parts of Seattle without tripping over drug users,” he continued. “Whether they’re smoking marijuana, which is illegal, or using meth, fentanyl, whatever, you can’t have that on the streets of Seattle where people want to go. You just can’t have that.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.
