JOHN CURLEY

‘It won’t change’: Former Seattle cop says Aurora barriers won’t stop pimps

Jul 5, 2026, 5:02 AM | Updated: 6:49 am

After Aurora residents set up barriers to combat crime and sex trafficking in their neighborhood, the City of Seattle ordered that they be removed. Shortly after, the council unanimously approved leaving the barricades in place temporarily.

A 28-year Seattle Police Department veteran and former Vice squad undercover agent, Ty, joined “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio to reveal why the barricades will do little to nothing to stop the pimps on Aurora.

“In my opinion, it won’t change. It might be a minor inconvenience for the pimp to have to drive down one more street and turn the block,” Ty said. “It’s not like them putting up roadblocks is going to suddenly make a pimp go, ‘Oh man, I need to get out of this game and do something else.’ I hand it to the people up there. I wondered how people could live in that area and drive their kids to school.

“Having to see that, and then sit next to their kid going, ‘Mommy, daddy, look at her, why is she out there?'” Ty continued. “I hand it to the people who were up there that took it into their own hands, because what they did is shame the city, and there’s power in shaming. The city responded by taking down the barricades, but once it hit national news, the city felt shame, and then what did the city do? They came back, ‘Oh, now we care about this.'”

Former detective says enforcement in Aurora looks nothing like it did years ago

Ty worked on Aurora for roughly 10 years, providing key insights into what enforcement used to look like in the area and comparing it to what is being seen now.

“When I first started many years ago, we used to actually make arrests,” Ty said. “What happened is we would pose as buyers and Johns, and next thing you know, we’d get the offer and acceptance, and we would pull into a spot, our backup would come and make the arrest. We kept it in check during that time. I don’t believe there’s much enforcement being done now.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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