Criminal loitering and aggressive panhandling may soon be punishable by fines or jail time in the city, if a proposed ordinance takes effect.
The board of aldermen approved a call for public hearings on its consent agenda during its Tuesday meeting.
Ward 4 Alderman Mike Brooks, who proposed the ordinance, said he has experienced issues with aggressive panhandling at local convenience stores. Those instances, combined with complaints he has heard from other citizens, made him want the law on the books.
“I’ve noticed it at gas stations, in particular,” Brooks told The Dispatch Tuesday. “It seems you’re vulnerable there, because you’re (getting) gas and you can’t leave your vehicle. Or you’re coming out of a convenience store.”
If passed, criminal loitering would include areas like private driveways and property (unless granted permission by the owner); sidewalks causing interference with the operations of a business; any driving lane of any public road; street or highway, including crosswalks and bike lanes; and areas near busy streets with high daily traffic.
The proposed ordinance would make criminal loitering a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $250 or imprisonment not exceeding 1-month, or both, for the first offense; and a fine of $500 or imprisonment up to 90-days, or both, for subsequent offenses.
It would also make aggressive solicitation – including the use of violent or threatening gestures, continuing to solicit from a person after they have given a negative response, intentionally touching another person without consent while soliciting, intentionally blocking a pedestrian or vehicle, and more – a misdemeanor.
Solicitation will be considered aggressive if it is within 20 feet of an ATM, public parking garages, entrances and exits of restaurants, bus stops, public restrooms and more.
If the ordinance passes, aggressive panhandling will be punishable by a fine not exceeding $1,000, imprisonment for a period not to exceed 90-days, or both.
“We don’t want to come across as being mean, heartless, however you want to say it,” Brooks told The Dispatch. “But at the same time, we have to take into consideration our citizens and protecting them. Letting them go about their business without feeling like they’re being harassed, if you will.”
Language in the proposed ordinance cites increased homelessness in the city and homeless encounters with Starkville Police Department among the reasons for creating the law.
Mayor Lynn Spruill said increased contacts have happened primarily over the past two years, with police responding to scattered incidents around the city.
Most of what she has seen, though, has been around Highway 12, particularly around the Kroger and Walmart parking areas.
“We’re asking them to be respectful of areas that are less safe, and by that I mean the intersections,” Spruill said. “And certainly, to be respectful of people’s ability to go about their business and feel safe in the community. From that perspective, that’s what it’s intended to do. … To not discriminate, but certainly to look at those folks in a compassionate way, but also, they need to blend in with the community too.”
A great deal of the text of the proposed law, Spruill said, was pulled from an ordinance recently passed in Tupelo.
SPD Chief Mark Ballard said during the board’s work session Friday he previously spoke to the Tupelo police chief about some of the situations they had seen, since both cities are seeing panhandlers come from outside of their communities.
“A lot of the individuals, like what Alderman Brooks referred to, are not from this community,” Ballard said. “They are professional panhandling. They will set off, and some of them will show a little bit more aggression. Give me $2? That’s not enough. Give me 10.”
Ballard declined to comment further by press time Tuesday.
While the city does not currently have an ordinance prohibiting the standing, lurking, loitering or positioning of oneself in certain designated places, a line in the 2015 municipal code disallowed the peddling of goods or solicitation of contributions of any kind while standing in or upon a public roadway.
The American Civil Liberties Union pushed Starkville to repeal that line of its code in 2018, claiming that the restriction may be unconstitutional and to replace the line with a new sentence limiting transient vendors blocking pedestrian traffic or roadways.
City Attorney Berk Huskison said Friday the new law is limited in terms of the behavior. He called it “content neutral,” with “time, place and manner” restrictions.
Brandi Herrington, executive director for Starkville Strong, a local nonprofit that helps those in poverty and dealing with homelessness, said in a text message to The Dispatch that she was “encouraged” by the proposed ordinance’s acknowledgement of the increased homeless population in Starkville.
But she had some suggestions for changes to the writing of the ordinance with more clear definitions of each crime, since “criminalizing homelessness is ineffective and costly.”
“Two ineffective approaches to addressing homelessness are criminalization and short-term handouts, which can enable negative behaviors and patterns,” Herrington said. “Instead, we see this ordinance as a chance to discuss real and tangible solutions that address Starkville’s homeless population and community safety.”
Posted in News
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