Everett Police Report To Council Show Good And Bad Of Alcohol Impact Areas

Back in 2015 the Everett City Council passed a voluntary Alcohol Impact Area ordinance that restricted the sale of 20 brands of high liquor content alcohol sold at stores within certain geographical areas of the city. The main focus was in the downtown core but the area extended into north and south portions of Everett as well. Many store owners complained and it turned out that only a few were voluntarily complying with the law.

On September 7th, 2016 the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board enacted a mandatory Alcohol Impact Area requested by the City of Everett. You can click here to see the boundaries of the area as well as the list of prohibited beverages.

As part of the enactment of the resolution, Everett Police have to prepare a report on their findings of the effectiveness of the resolution after one year and again a report in five years. Tonight the Everett Police Department gave the one year update to the Everett City Council. (click here to see the report)

Everett Police Lt. Ryan Dalberg walked the council through the report which outlined a reduction in alcohol related incidents within the Alcohol Impact Area. According to the numbers presented there were a total of 1079 alcohol incidents in the 12 month period from October 2016 to October of 2017. 488 incidents were inside the AIA and 591 were outside the AIA. Compared to the previous two years the data showed a reduction of more than 30 percent in incidents within the AIA.

The bad news comes as incidents outside of the AIA showed a marked increase. Between 2015 and the 2016-2017 period alcohol incidents outside of the AIA were up 80 percent. Overall the total number of alcohol incidents were 1121 in 2014, 1031 in 2015 and 1079 in 2016-2017. “That’s not really a success story if you aren’t in an Alcohol Improvement Area,” remarked council member Brenda Stonecipher.

Stonecipher asked Dalberg what the plan was moving forward and he advised that the city was staffing up a second bike unit that would help in cracking down on problems and complaints outside of the Alcohol Impact Area. “It’s a work in progress,” said Dalberg.