Welcome to The Newsfeed.

I'm Paris Jackson.

I had the chance to sit down with new Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans and discuss her priorities in office.

Here is that conversation.

So first and foremost, welcome to The Newsfeed.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm so glad to be here.

Thank you, Paris.

It's a pleasure.

You are now the city's new top lawyer.

And what are some of your priorities for the city attorney's office?

Top priorities.

When I think of Seattle, this is my home.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest.

I want Seattle to be a place that feels safe.

I want to feel safe and making sure when I take my nieces and young nephews out into our streets, you know, we can just feel safe.

That's so important.

And another big thing is making sure our communities can thrive.

I want to see Little Saigon being a place that's thriving.

We see what's currently happening in our streets right now and some of the failed policies that have really displaced folks and caused areas that are not, you know, doing good in public safety and in our communities.

Another big thing is making sure that we are fighting back with urgency and with courage against any attacks to our values and rights here in Seattle.

We have a president right now that acts unlawful, that is violating the Constitution in how he is moving.

And we need to make sure here in Seattle, we are ready to go on day one to protect our values and rights.

You've been clear about your approach to drug enforcement, which will include alternatives rather than just prosecution, whether drug diversion or community court.

What from those, changes is different from your predecessor?

And why are you taking this approach?

I think the biggest thing, Paris is, I believe that folks that are dealing with substance use disorder, not the traffickers but the folks that are dealing with addiction should be connected to treatment, not just put in jail.

And then they're right back out in a couple days, not addressing the underlying root causes.

We can see the evidence is clear in our streets of how what's been happening in the prior administration of this office is not currently working.

It is vital, as public servants, to make sure we're being good stewards of public safety and our public dollars.

What we're doing is making sure that folks that are dealing with addiction, young folks that are in our streets right now dealing with this unprecedented fentanyl crisis, that they have an opportunity if they want to get into treatment, that they can.

And we are providing them with that option for diversion.

However, we do retain the right if folks are not making meaningful progress to do traditional prosecution.

So that is very consistent with the goal and purpose of this law.

How do you plan to build trust with the community?

I think the biggest ways to build trust with the community is to be in community.

That has been something that has always been at the forefront of everything I do, from mentoring young folks, even when I was in undergrad, mentoring high school students.

As a law student, I would mentor college students and as a lawyer now, I mentor young lawyers and those that are trying to get into our profession.

I think making sure that we ensure our office is accessible and that we are setting good examples of what, you know, as Seattle we believe, should be and look like is important.

Switching gears, let's let's talk about relationships.

How do you see your office's role in working with the Seattle Police Department?

Paris, when I think about cases we get for animal abuse, cases we get for domestic violence, cases we get for DUIs, those cases come from the police department and ensuring we have a good partnership and collaboration.

They're the ones that are referring those cases to our office.

We had in our transition team, chief Shon Barnes, who has been outstanding, and I'm really looking forward to the continued partnership and collaboration.

I think another thing that we've spoken about, the importance of accountability and professionalism, that is something that at the forefront of Chief Barnes' mind, and it's something that is at the forefront of my mind in our office, in how we expect and what we demand of our attorneys and professional staff in this office.

One thing that you campaigned on, and you kind of mentioned it, was expediting the process of DUI and domestic violence, the backlog of those cases.

Now that you're in office, what are some of the ways in which that you'll be able to address that?

These last few weeks, Paris, we've been going to Olympia to work on a bill that will allow us to address the backlog with the DUIs that we currently have.

Right now today, if someone gets into an accident here in Seattle for driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, it's going to take 22 months for us to be able to get the toxicology report back, to be able to charge that case, and that is unacceptable.

People, in the meantime, will get another DUI as they await to have any conditions imposed on them.

And so this bill is going to allow us to use accredited private toxicology labs to be able to get those tests one quicker.

So we're doing what is necessary to keep the public safe.

And I'm really, grateful for the support, bipartisan support we've had on this bill.

And it's moving forward.

And we're really hopeful that it will get through this legislative session.

Let's talk about the federal government.

President Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull federal funding from Seattle, among other cities, over sanctuary policies and political issues.

What's your response to that sort of pressure?

What's happening nationwide from our president, who is violating constitutional rights, who is breaking the law, is unacceptable.

And here in Seattle, we fight back with urgency and courage.

It is heartbreaking, the killings we've seen happen in Minnesota and the unlawful surge of ICE agents, essentially coming out like the military against our communities.

We are proactively partnering and working with our mayor, Katie Wilson, with our council and with other elected leaders in our city and in our state and other cities across the nation to proactively be ready on day one, if that were to happen.

We will file a contempt motion against Trump.

We already have a pending lawsuit for his threats on cutting funding for us being a welcoming and sanctuary city.

So we are proactively preparing to be ready to go if that is going to happen here in Seattle, because that's what we do.

From what we've seen in Minneapolis with ICE enforcement, how is your office preparing to respond if that sort of presence touches down here in Seattle?

It's very frustrating and unacceptable, the killings that have happened in Minnesota.

And what we've done, we filed an amicus in support of Minnesota in their lawsuit against the administration on what's happened there in Minneapolis.

We are preparing and partnering and communicating with our local officials, with our mayor, with our city council, with other government leaders and cities across the nation to proactively be ready on day one, if that's going to happen here in Seattle.

We're going to be ready to fight back and to fight back right away.

I think another thing, Paris, is the experience that I'm coming from leaving the Department of Justice, someone that's worked for the federal government.

Those are so important skills that are needed at a time like this.

And so I'm really grateful that the experience I have, you know, from working in public safety to working for the federal government, has equipped me with the tools that are needed in this time.

And for those that are just not aware, there are limitations that a city jurisdiction and I'm not an attorney, versus a federal law.

It puts you in a precarious situation for those that may not understand the differences, the legal differences.

Can you provide briefly some understanding in that?

Yes.

When I left the Department of Justice, I was working in civil rights.

Our unit was the one that would hold federal officers accountable when they break the law.

That's not happening right now in this Department of Justice.

However, I do want to make clear that I believe there will be a Department of Justice one day that will return to prosecuting those cases.

So while some ICE agents and federal officials right now feel that they have immunity, there will be a reckoning one day when we have a new Department of Justice that is acting in the interest of justice, not what we're seeing right now.

As you mentioned, what we're seeing happening in our streets and in our communities is something that's unprecedented.

And we don't have an administration that is protecting us, the people.

And I know it is inherent on us as local leaders to make sure we're doing everything we can using every tool we have to protect our people, to protect our city.

And that is everything I am bringing to the table and working in collaboration and in partnership with everyone to make sure we're protecting and keeping Seattle safe.

Moving on and getting into something that you also campaigned on, and that's community courts.

Tell us about your plan to bring community court back since Ann Davison pulled out of it.

Community court.

I think the biggest thing that's great about it, it's it deals with misdemeanors and it deals with nonviolent misdemeanors.

It allows folks that are committing quality of life crimes say, you know, a minor theft or someone that's unhoused.

It allows them they get connected with treatment and service providers so they don't get out and re-offend, and it allows them to get connected and their case gets diverted.

And that's what we all want at the end of the day, for folks not to get out and re-offend.

So it provides that as a catalyst to allow that to happen.

I've gone and looked at models across our state in Tacoma, Redmond, even in Bellevue, and they are community courts that are thriving and they're allowing folks to get what they need.

So they're not getting right back out and reoffending.

And that is inherent on us as leaders to be creative and think outside the box, to make sure we're keeping community safe, while also making sure people are having what they need so they don't re-offend.

What are the biggest challenges going forward that potentially may be in front of relaunching this community court?

We have already met with the court.

We have had the Department of Defense at the table.

They were part of our transition team as well.

People are ready to have a new reimagined community court.

I think the biggest thing is really just leaning in to the importance of that collaboration from the court, from the Department of Public Defense and from our office, because all three of us are key players to making sure one gets, created, and that is one that is going to work.

You've been vocal about your priority to divert low level drug cases to LEAD, which has sparked some controversy.

To level set, what is your position on combating the opioid crisis?

80% of the cases right now that officers encounter with folks dealing with a substance use disorder, they are already getting diverted into LEAD.

It's just the 20%.

Maybe this is a new officer that wasn't trained on, hey, this is the policy that ends up into this office.

And all we're saying is we're going to just make sure that those cases that do come, that we're having a lens and an eye to make sure if some of these folks, some of them are young folks, that they have the opportunity to get connected to services and treatment.

We do reserve the right to prosecute if this person's not making meaningful progress, or they're not engaging with the services provided.

Your office works in tandem with LEAD.

Will your office have a different approach than your predecessor?

Yeah, I think the biggest different approach really is the experience that I'm bringing to this role.

I've been a city prosecutor and a federal prosecutor.

I've gotten close to a million fentanyl pills off our streets, unlawful firearms off our streets.

This is work that I've done, boots on the ground that I've done in trial, gone toe to toe with high level serious drug traffickers.

I think that perspective matters in a role like this.

When we're talking about a population that is not the traffickers, because those are felonies, our office doesn't do that.

It's the misdemeanors.

And a lot of these folks with the drugs are the ones that are dealing with the addiction.

I think the biggest difference is the experience of me actually having experience as a as a public safety person, boots on the ground, plus the perspective of working on these cases before and seeing the need that these cases with folks dealing with addiction, need to get connected with treatment.

We can see clearly the evidence is in our street of how what's been happening these last few years is not working.

It is very clear.

We can go to different areas in parts in our city, and we can see how what was happening is not working.

And our failed policies are staying.

Staying along the same lines.

The King County Department of Public Defense, they had a report that found 215 criminal prosecutions over the last two years.

Under the drug diversion program, only six people were connected to treatment.

You've called that a failure.

What is your plans?

And you've said a lot to to fix that.

Yeah.

And in that report as well, it found that Black people were four times more likely to be criminally charged for, using than, non-Black people.

That is a failure.

What we're saying with that 20% that are within those 215 numbers that you just gave, is that we're going to make sure that if these are folks that want to get connected to get treatment, we're going to be providing that.

And that is the goal of how this law says it should work.

And we know of what was previously happening, of just putting people in jail.

They're going to get one to two days, if even that, and they're going to be right back out on the streets dealing with the same addiction.

That's not fair to anybody.

It's not fair to us as taxpayers because we're paying for folks to go to jail.

They'll be right back out.

And it's not fair to the folks that are dealing with the addiction.

The goal of this law is to make sure folks have an opportunity to get connected with services and treatment and us as as leaders and elected officials that are are working on these cases, need to be following that to ensure we're being good stewards of public safety and of our public dollars.

We're preparing to to to wrap this up, but before we go, your win, your overwhelming win for this office, in researching just your background, it's connected to a legacy.

It's connected to, activism, social justice and many of the things that you campaigned on.

When we reflect on the month that we're in, what do you want to say to marginalized folks or folks that may not even be from marginalized communities?

Why it's important to champion some of the, things those that came before us, like your grandfather, have done to, make society better.

I just keep visualizing, you know, when I was making the decision to run for this office, I kept looking of who used to be in this role.

And I saw for 150 years, you know, white men were in this role.

And being the first, but not the last, I think it really makes a difference when our community sees themselves.

The communities were serving, sees themselves in positions of power.

When we're saying, no, this is something that you have access to, that I'm bringing a lens that is the communities we're serving, and that's so important at the table.

Different perspectives that have been, traditionally not in these seats.

I think that's vital.

And I also think of the unpopularity of what my grandfather did at the Olympics.

It was met with outrage, people gave him death threats and were angry.

But it stood the test of time.

And I know that when we lead with love, when we lead with courage, and we lead with doing the right thing, that that is always going to stand the test of time.

And that is the same courage and spirit I'm bringing to this role.

And I'm so excited to do good things for our city.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

I'm Paris Jackson.

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