EVERETT — The city will continue to declare portions of Broadway, Evergreen Way and Hewitt Avenue as drug-free zones which court-ordered offenders must stay away from.
The city will solely lift the restriction within the 700 to 1000 blocks of Broadway because of few arrests. There were only four narcotics incidents in this area, and none last year, city prosecuting attorney Lacey Offutt said.
Officers continue to find open-air drug use at Clark Park, police sergeant Chris Bennett said last week. People regularly complain about it, his write-up says.
The city’s other stay-out-of-drug-areas are along Casino Road, Rucker Avenue, Smith Avenue and Everett Mall Way. The length of Evergreen Way is a stay-out-of-drug-area. The area near the Fred Meyer at Casino Road and Evergreen Way represented the most intense number of drug violations in the city, with the area near the Everett Mall Way Walmart trailing close behind.
A stay-out-of-drug-area is most often applied to parts of the city with drug trafficking issues. A judge can order someone convicted of a drug charge — from solicitation to paraphernalia — to not enter these zones or be at risk of violating the order.
Overall there have been 1,359 calls for narcotics leading to about 774 arrests. Seventy-two arrests were for violating drug-area orders.
