City of Kent to establish ‘SODA Zones'
The City Council in Kent will vote next Tuesday on an ordinance to create 'Stay Out of Drug Areas' in three locations across the community. Chief Rafael Padilla, whose department advocated for the change, says it's to address a gap in enforcement as the municipality faces an increase in drug cases and overdoses in the last several years.
'I think we are looking at this ordinance as a great opportunity to engage someone who is suffering from substance use disorder and give them a chance to choose to get treatment or go through the criminal justice system,' he said.
The three areas are around West Meeker Avenue, the downtown corridor, and several blocks surrounding 104th Ave SE & SE 240th Avenue. In a presentation to the city council, Kent police showed a map of drug-related charges, cases, and overdoses. If passed, the ordinance would allow a judge to prohibit a person charged or convicted of drug-related charges from entering those areas. Failure to do so would be punishable by up to a year in jail and/or up to a $5,000 fine.
Shay DeFrance, owner of Shay's Hair Lounge, supports the ordinance. She has witnessed drug-dealing and drug use at the park near her business. Her security cameras caught people attempting to break into her store, breaking into cars, and even caught a five-hour raid of the business next door in the middle of the night.
'Coming into work and there's blood in front of the store, on the sidewalk, on my business. There's drug paraphernalia out in front, and I'm expected to clean it up,' DeFrance said.
DeFrance has changed hours, installed a more secure door, and has had potential hires refuse a job because of what happens in front of her store.
'I don't see people walking around here just window shopping. That used to be a thing that we did all the time,' she recalls.
Skeptics like Sarah Andrews, operations director at Peer Kent — an organization aiming to connect people with mental health and addiction services — worry that, combined with open-drug use ordinances, Kent is creating an enforcement-first approach.
'They're creating [laws] without having the social services on the other side to actually help people recover. It's just going to cause people to end up back in the system,' Andrews said.
Padilla contends that enforcement will give people chances to connect with people. He points to community court, where charges are dropped to a lower level or completely when someone completes drug-treatment programs or similar recovery processes, which will help move the needle in the opposite direction it's been headed over the last few years.
'There have been positive outcomes with drug court and holistic courts like that. That's not the trajectory for everyone that is successful,' Andrews said.
'We're not saying that SODA is going to solve the drug problem. What we're saying is — it's going to help us at least start to keep people from coming back and plaguing certain areas of the city,' he added.
Padilla says that similar ordinances creating restrictions around prostitution and street racing have had 'an immediate impact.'
'You start to see the issues, and the presence of those crimes, decrease. Now, that's not to say they don't go to other locations,' he said.
Padilla says his department will monitor trends in other areas of Kent. While he admits he does not have the data, Padilla says it seems like more drug-related crimes have occurred in Kent after neighboring Auburn passed a similar SODA ordinance in October.
'We are mindful of that. People will go where, I think, they feel most comfortable. People will go where they see there's the least path of resistance,' Padilla said. Drug cases reported by Kent Police increased from 236 in 2023 to 445 in 2024. Understanding that not all of those people will accept treatment options, Padilla says he's concerned about jail capacity if the ordinance goes into effect.
'That's why, in all sincerity, we are hoping we can get voluntary compliance, right? There are different ways to measure success in this. I think the most obvious is when we help people get well; that's the huge thing,' said Padilla.
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