The Seattle Board of Park Commissioners unanimously recommended to approve a parks-wide smoking ban in May. The new rule will expand the existing smoking ban from within 25 feet of another park visitor to no smoking on any publicly accessible parkland.
Enforcement of the new rule would primarily be a matter of education and will be entrusted to Park Rangers and the Seattle police officers. Park Rangers will approach smokers and provide them with information on where they can smoke and a resource card with information about the policy and resources for help in quitting tobacco (if they wish to quit). The next level of enforcement would be a verbal warning, followed by a written warning.
Seattle Parks expects a large percentage of smokers to voluntarily comply with the verbal requests or verbal warnings.
The enforcement protocol for the new rule was developed in 2012. This protocol does not include excluding people from a park because they are smoking.
To report a non-emergency nuisance activity, the public should call the Seattle Police non-emergency line at (206) 625-5011. Park visitors who have been given a written trespass warning for smoking in a park can set up a meeting to dispute the claim by emailing Right2dispute@seattle.gov or by calling (206) 684-4075.
Smoking is allowed on public rights-of-way, including sidewalks. For more information about the smoking ban, visit the Seattle Parks and Recreation website at www.seattle.gov/parks/smokingban.