Why is Aurora Avenue crime concentrated in Seattle, not Shoreline?

Aurora Avenue North is starkly divided at North 145th street — the border between the cities of Seattle and Shoreline.

The main question is why.

South of 145th in Seattle, open prostitution has been accompanied by brazen gun battles this summer. To the north, Shoreline officials say those problems are virtually nonexistent. But they say their prostitution loitering law hasn’t played a significant role in that contrast.

Seattle City Councilmember Cathy Moore is sponsoring legislation to address prostitution loitering on Aurora, after a previous city council repealed those penalties in 2020.

RELATED: Seattle City Council considers 'prostitution loitering' law amid intense debate

Moore’s ordinance would create a “Stay Out of Area of Prostitution” zone on Aurora, below the border with Shoreline. Violating that restraining order would be a gross misdemeanor. There is language in Moore’s proposal intended to crack down on traffickers and buyers of commercial sex rather than sex workers or victims of trafficking.

Moore said her SOAP legislation was inspired partly by a similar ordinance Shoreline has had in place since 1996. As her legislation was introduced in the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety Committee on Aug. 14, Moore said, “Shoreline has a SOAP area; it’s been in effect for 28 years," she said. "It’s been found to be constitutional. It has not resulted in the end of civil liberties as we know it, nor has it resulted in disproportionate enforcement on communities of color."

Jim Hammond is the intergovernmental relations manager for the city of Shoreline. He said the city hasn’t used those SOAP orders since at least 2018 — but he said the law "still has value and sends a message."

A 2022 assessment by the city echoed this conclusion, finding that both the city’s SOAP and Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) orders have gone unused in recent years. It recommended retaining and possibly updating these ordinances.

But Hammond believes there’s a more fundamental reason that Shoreline does not have the same problems with crime and disorder on Aurora. His office at city hall is just a short distance from Aurora at North 175th street. He said it's still a busy, multi-lane state highway, but there are significant differences between Aurora in Shoreline and Aurora in Seattle.

“Just standing at this corner, you see a few things that are absent...south of 145th,” he said during a recent walk along the avenue.

He pointed to the 8-foot-wide sidewalks, and medians planted with trees, which he said can prevent collisions and provide more safety for pedestrians. These and other upgrades took twelve years and cost $140 million dollars. But Hammond believes they do more to deter prostitution and other types of disorder than the city’s criminal penalties.

“Environments matter,” he said. “If it looks well cared for, and you know people are going to continue to care for it, it just has a different effect on the behavior people are going to engage in in that space.”

RELATED: Why is there so much prostitution on Aurora Avenue in Seattle?

Tim Meyer is a captain with Shoreline police. He said he “totally concurs” that the city’s infrastructure and investments deserve the credit for the safer atmosphere on Shoreline’s stretch of Aurora Avenue.

Councilmember Moore met with Shoreline officials on July 15 to discuss her proposed prostitution loitering ordinance.

According to the minutes of the Shoreline City Council’s informal meeting with Moore, “Shoreline Police Chief Kelly Park spoke about the Department’s approach to addressing prostitution and drug issues in Shoreline with concern for the vulnerability of individuals involved. She said their focus is on providing services and long-term solutions first, rather than emphasizing arrests, especially for individuals being trafficked and exploited in prostitution. This approach has led to a decreased need for the stay out of areas of prostitution (SOAP) and stay out of drug areas (SODA) orders for chronic drug use and prostitution issues.”

Moore’s proposal would require that Seattle track demographic information for people subject to SOAP orders. Shoreline does not collect that data, but has also not sought a single SOAP or SODA order for several years.

(Shoreline contracts with the King County Sheriff’s Office for policing services. A recent audit found the sheriff's office does not routinely collect data on racial identity, and said racial disparities exist in the arrest data that is available.)

Moore has said she also wants to provide more services and long-term solutions to women seeking to exit prostitution and trafficking, and will pursue those priorities during the budget process this fall.

The Seattle City Council is expected to take up the drug and prostitution loitering proposals in September after its summer recess, with a vote by the full council potentially taking place by Sept. 17.