Seattle Mayor and City Attorney Want to Vacate 208 Misdemeanor Arrest Warrants

Mayor Jenny Durkan, during a news conference Tuesday, said the move would address racial and social inequities as well as let law enforcement place a heavier focus on more serious offenses.

The city is asking Seattle Municipal Court judges to quash many warrants involving prostitution, driving with a suspended license in the third-degree, minor in possession of alcohol, graffiti and other low-level crimes.

“Think about where you were five, and 20 years ago? Some of these warrants, people literally don’t know they were issued,” Durkan said.

Durkan said more than 40 percent of the 208 defendants are people of color. While 101 of the defendants are white, 73 are African-American, according to the city.

Many of the cases, Durkan said, were for driving with a suspended license.

“They were issued for, literally, crimes of poverty,” Durkan said.

The warrants were filed between February 1996 and July 2013.

“The warrants will go away,” Holmes said during the news conference. “They will no longer, if someone is pulled over, pop up as an outstanding warrant; that then subjects someone to an arrest.”

This is the second time Mayor Durkan has sought to have cases vacated from Seattle Municipal Court. Earlier this year the city asked the court to toss out all convictions and dismiss charges for all misdemeanor marijuana possession cases filed before 2010 – the court agreed to.  (KOMO 4 News, November 28, 2018)
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Getting rid of old warrants for old, minor offenses is a good idea. Not only does this benefit the individual who missed a court date years ago, but it relieves the police from having to deal with old warrants which have sat in the system for years - allowing the police to focus on current and actual crimes (not administrative and procedural errors, such as missing a court date).

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