Issues & Priorities

Everyone deserves to be safe where they live, work, worship, and attend school. Leading with this core principle, Erika is the only candidate for City Attorney with the professional and lived experience to focus on public safety solutions rooted in data and effectiveness, not ideology and sound bites.  

A Renewed Emphasis on Domestic Violence

In 2021, prior to the current Republican City Attorney entering office, it took 25 days on average to file a domestic violence case from the time of the incident. In 2024, it now takes 50 days—twice as long. Survivors of domestic violence deserve to be safe and heard. Erika will bring experience as a city and federal prosecutor to emphasize domestic violence cases and restore the lives and peace of mind survivors deserve.

Figure 1. Seattle Municipal Court, Domestic Violence Court Data Reports: https://www.seattle.gov/courts/about/data-and-publications/domestic-violence-court-data-reports

Clearing the DUI Backlog

In 2021, it took an average of 5 days to file a DUI case from the time of the incident. It now takes an average of over 80 days, creating an inexcusable and unnecessary backlog that leaves Seattle motorists and pedestrians less safe. As the only candidate with experience prosecuting DUI cases, Erika understands how to move DUI cases forward, and she will do so without pointing fingers or making excuses.

A Balanced Approach to Property Crimes

Erika will bring a thoughtful and informed approach to misdemeanor property crimes (felony crimes are handled by the county and federal prosecutors under state and federal law), understanding that these actions disproportionately harm small businesses and vulnerable communities. While some property crimes may reflect substance use or behavioral issues that need to be addressed outside the courtroom, Erika knows they are not victimless. Accountability is important, too. As a city and federal prosecutor, Erika will employ diversion, restorative justice principles, and accountability tools to bring a balanced approach to property crime prosecutions.

Real Solutions to Complex Challenges, Not False Promises

Taking on complex, multi-jurisdictional public safety issues—like the fentanyl crisis or human trafficking—requires straight talk, trusted relationships, real experience, and the resources to make a difference. Drawing lines on a map and issuing a press release won’t reduce drug crimes in the CID, will not protect exploited people, and won’t help small businesses and residents in neighborhoods facing unacceptable levels of crime and disruption. 

As a seasoned Federal prosecutor who held high-level fentanyl traffickers accountable, Erika knows the need for a coordinated response to make real impacts, she will bring urgency and experience to these important issues:

• Build upon existing relationships and partnerships with state and federal law enforcement and prosecutors to address complex and large-scale crime and safety issues.
• Show up and listen to impacted communities and businesses—to better understand the issues and develop the best course of action.
• Speak out to help drive resources and attention to areas of our city overburdened by drug crimes and threats to safety and property.
• Advocate at the state and federal levels for additional tools and responses to make real, and lasting change. 

 

 

Although not a legislator, the City Attorney can still play an important role in helping shape policies to address issues of poverty, drug addiction, and mental health—and other “upstream” solutions that reduce crime and violence. Understanding how these issues have affected people in her own community and family, Erika will lead with compassion, empathy, and urgency.

A Reimagined Community Court

Seattle deserves a Community Court that works—one that reduces crime, holds people accountable, and provides real pathways to rehabilitation. Initially founded in 2005, Seattle used to have one of the first Community Courts in the nation, one that served as a model for other Community Courts in bigger cities with more complex public safety problems. The current Republican City Attorney dismantled Community Court in 2023 without offering any alternative, effectively ending alternative pathways to justice that reduce the burden on our courts and jails, reduce recidivism, and restore lives and accountability. 

Erika’s vision for a New Community Court starts with:

• A Community-Based Model: Community courts should be held outside traditional courtrooms and in accessible community locations.
• Real Support: Housing assistance, job training, addiction treatment (including pet fostering for those who choose to go into treatment), and mental health services all in one place to address the root causes of crime.
• Accountability: Participants must complete services or will return to mainstream court.

Proven Alternative Pathways to Justice and Health

Seattle already employs innovative and effective alternative programs, like Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), and recently stood up the CARE Team response unit to address nonviolent, non-criminal activities before they escalate. We need a City Attorney who champions these types of programs and policies—reducing the burden on police and first responders while helping people get the assistance and support they need. Erika will:

• Expand proven intervention and alternative justice programs that remove people from settings where they may harm themselves or others.
• Work with the County’s behavioral health triage centers as they come online to direct people to the services and support they need.
• Partner with the Regional Homelessness Authority and other providers to help unhoused people get into shelter and supportive services and reduce the burden on ineffective jail and emergency room settings.
• Collaborate with the Mayor and County leaders to bring a public health approach to fentanyl and substance use crises and continue federal partnerships to reduce the supply of deadly drugs into our city.

 

Erika’s experience and vision will lead with a smart-on-crime approach that breaks the cycle of repeat offenses while keeping communities safe and holding people accountable.

Erika will not hesitate to take on the Trump Administration or speak out about the fear community members are experiencing. We cannot afford to have a City Attorney like the Republican incumbent—who hesitates to act, reacts instead of leads, and describes the problem with the current administration as one of “local control.” As City Attorney, Erika will stand with her counterpart at the Attorney General’s office, fight back, and speak out.

 

• Stand up to attacks on the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers.
• Fight back against the rollback of climate protections.
• Take on the ban against DEI initiatives.
• Lead the fight against Trump’s war on reproductive rights and gender-affirming care.
• Do everything possible to protect our science, disease prevention, and research institutions from illegal funding cuts and attacks on intellectual freedom.

Coming from a working-class background grounded in unions, Erika understands the importance of having a safe, living wage job. Erika is the only candidate in this race with experience prosecuting wage theft cases that hold employers accountable for their actions. With attacks on workers and the right to organize and demand fair wages and benefits increasing, we need Erika’s voice:

 

• Increase resources for City Attorney’s Office staff handling support for workers and worker rights.
• Continue to enforce and expand fair labor practices.
• Hold employers who engage in wage theft and unfair practices accountable and stand firm with working people on matters of justice and fundamental rights. 

Erika has spent her entire career working in public safety—as a City and Federal prosecutor—and understands that trust in law enforcement and policing is essential to true community safety. The victim of unlawful police bias as a young woman, Erika has the unique experience of having experienced and worked on all sides of these issues, including advising and representing the City of Seattle and SPD on public safety issues and use-of-force claims. At the federal level, Erika investigating law enforcement officers accused of bias or excessive force. Erika understands that one of the core components to addressing public safety challenges is to rebuild trust and support best practices and community-driven policing. Continue working with city, state, and federal partners to improve SPD procedures and policies, reform internal culture, and address other impacts of the longstanding federal consent decree.

• Push for needed changes in state law that allow for CARE Team dispatch—freeing up traditional police resources and ensuring the right type of responder can address emergency calls. 
• Collaborate with our community to help facilitate trust and relationship-building

Erika will rely on her years of experience in civil municipal litigation to bring back common sense litigation practices and advice to the role of City Attorney.

 

• A renewed focus on reducing large settlement amounts.
• Restore standard appellate processes to appeal rulings when appropriate and avoid the blanket affidavit practices utilized by the current Republican City Attorney, which are creating conflict and backlogs in our Municipal Court.
• Rely on her experience, the brain trust of the staff at the Civil Division of the City Attorney’s Office, and Seattle’s larger legal community to provide high-level civil litigation expertise and advice.