Kent’s West Hill area along Pacific Highway South between Kent-Des Moines Road and South 244th Street, which includes a new light rail station, is now part of the city’s Stay Out of Drug Areas (SODA) zones.
The Kent City Council unanimously approved the fourth zone Dec. 9 after approval of three other zones last April in an effort to reduce drug-related crimes along streets with known drug activity.
According to the ordinance, it gives Kent Police an additional tool to address drug-related crime by keeping criminal defendants known to engage in unlawful criminal activity out of concentrated areas.
The new zone stretches from Interstate 5 on the east to Pacific Highway on the west and from Kent-Des Moines Road on the north to South 244th Street on the south.
Police staff didn’t ask the council to include this area initially, but an increase in drug incidents and overdoses led to the request for an additional zone. The zones approved last spring also have helped reduce the drug-related incidents in those areas, according to city documents.
With the opening of Sound Transit’s light rail 7.8-mile extension in December between SeaTac and Federal Way with stops in Kent, city leaders figured it was a good time to give police another tool to combat drug use, especially with the Kent Des Moines Station along Pacific Highway South near Highline College.
The SODA zones, which started in May, have reduced drug-related incidents downtown; along a portion of West Meeker Street; and on the East Hill along 104th Avenue SE/SE 240th Street, according to city documents.
City of Kent Municipal judges issued 119 orders to people to stay out of the drug areas since the ordinance was adopted in May.
Violation of the Stay Out of Drug Areas order is a gross misdemeanor subject to a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail and/or a $5,000 fine under city code. A person found in violation of this order is subject to arrest.
Kent Police used crime data to determine the areas of town with the most drug incidents. Police Cmdr. Mike O’Reilly told the council last month that the drug incidents in the three established zones have gone down since the council adopted the ordinance last spring.
The opening of two light rail stations last month in Kent encouraged police to ask for the fourth SODA zone, the first on the West Hill. Kent also has a light rail station at Star Lake, near South 272nd Street and I-5.
“We want to make it safe and we want to encourage the public to utilize this new tool for transportation,” O’Reilly said to the council in December. “The last thing we want is people to feel afraid to come and use this great tool.”
There are no plans to remove any of the existing zones.
“Given the effectiveness the existing SODA Zones have had on reducing the number of incidents of drug-related activity within those zones, the Kent Police Department does not recommend, at this time, that any of the existing SODA Zones be removed, and that the existing zones remain as previously defined,” according to city documents.
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