EVERETT — Public restrooms in downtown and in all city parks will soon have automatic door locks and deterrents against afterhours misuse if the City Council approves a Parks Department proposal this week.
Each restroom door would have “automatic access controls” that staff can program remotely, and “visual and audio deterrents” for potential vandals and criminals.
This comes in response to budget cuts that eliminated five park ranger positions for 2025. Rangers aided city police in patrolling Everett’s 45 parks.
The city plans to spend $350,000 for this technology from the city’s capital improvement budget.
The locks in city parks will activate at closing time, typically dusk, city parks director Bob Leonard told the council at its Feb. 26 meeting.
If a bathroom door does not shut and activate the lock, staff can know which door is ajar, rather than checking each park restroom, Leonard said.
Downtown public restrooms will typically lock in sync with park restrooms, though Leonard said that’s up for discussion.
“This is just part of safety of the restrooms,” Mayor Cassie Franklin said at the Feb. 26 meeting. “We want them to be safe, and keeping the restrooms unlocked all day can lead to some dangerous and bad behaviors in our restrooms.”
Drug use in city library restrooms led to the installation of sensors in 2023. Though Everett does not have a particular problem with crime in public restrooms, it has a higher-than-average national crime rate.
Adding the locks and measures “helps support (safety) with reduced resources and staffing across all city departments,” Franklin said.
The City Council will decide whether to go ahead with the plan at its March 12 meeting this week.
