City Addresses Constitutional Concerns in Management of Transient Population Downtown

logo-w-sunburstKayla Desroches/KMXT

The city has run into a roadblock in managing the transient population downtown, especially in the mall area, where business owners have complained of aggressive behavior or harassment. The city council passed an ordinance last year aimed at regulating that behavior. It implemented fines and other consequences for activities like loitering, obstruction of pedestrians or cars, and panhandling.

In July 2016, the City Council and city manager received a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union that determined that some aspects of the ordinance may be unconstitutional. In the letter it stated that “the law criminalizes the basics of navigating public space” and the ordinance could be considered “cruel and unusual punishment if enforced against homeless people.”

The city attorneys agreed the city should put a hold on the ordinance until they had a chance to further look it over. At a city planning work session this past weekend, City Manager Aimée Kniaziowski said the attorneys have since updated the city on their progress.

“They went back and did additional research and found that the U.S. Supreme court really did – we aren’t really going to be able to use that language for panhandling because it falls under free speech protection, constitutional protections.”

She said other provisions of the ordinance would hold up to legal challenges.

A further complication is a criminal justice reform bill, SB 91, meant to reduce the number of prison inmates and offenses. One effect is that people incarcerated on minor offenses can more easily get bail or serve their sentences outside the jail. This can prove problematic and time-consuming for local police because it may mean that they deal with the same person multiple times over a short span of time.

At the work session, the city council touched on the ways different community members are trying to help members of the transient population despite limited treatment options for those suffering from addiction.

City Mayor Pat Branson pointed out that there is only so much the community can do for certain individuals.

“There are rules and there are rules, and when you try to take into account everybody and you have a different mission statement, I’m going to be real frank here, then it gets into, well, are we enabling, are we trying to get people help, and when they don’t want the help, what do you do? So, when your mission is you don’t anyone want anyone to die on the street, how far do you go to achieve that mission? And it’s very hard to find that balance there.”

The solution for harassment downtown is an ongoing consideration for the city.

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