Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge/Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge.iso/LEGAL/HOMELESS.TXT

Text File | 1990-12-19 | 16KB | 335 lines

 November 1990


                   POLICE AND THE HOMELESS

                              By

                   Barney Melekian
                          Lieutenant
         Santa Monica, California, Police Department


     All across the country, from small towns to big cities,
communities face both practical and ethical problems associated
with the increasing number of homeless people.  Police
departments, especially, have found dealing with the homeless to
be a significant law enforcement challenge.  These departments
are learning that an effective approach to policing the homeless
is not easily formulated, nor is there a single solution.  One
fact does remain, however--police departments must address the
problems and focus their efforts toward a solution.

TWO PHILOSOPHIES EMERGE

     Much has been written on the causes of homelessness, and
the debate continues, both in Santa Monica and across the
Nation, as to the appropriate social policy to adopt.  Citizens
and law enforcement officers are caught between legal and
ethical means of confronting this sensitive issue.
Nevertheless, as is usually the case, the responsibility of
dealing with the homeless on a day-to-day level ultimately falls
on the police department.

     The City of Santa Monica has become a prime area for a
growing homeless population.  Located within Los Angeles County,
the city has attracted homeless by its location and the several
homeless outreach programs begun there.  The impact of the
recent homeless influx to Santa Monica strained the existing
resources of the department and focused public debate onto what
the role of the police department should be concerning the
homeless.  Two distinct political philosophies emerged from this
debate, and the police department found itself caught in the
middle, looking for a workable solution.

Social Problem

     One philosophy holds that the issue of the homeless is a
social problem that could not and should not be pushed onto
other jurisdictions.  This point of view came from the city
attorney's office.  In an interview given on May 3, 1990, the
city attorney articulated a position that the homeless issue
stems from a failure of the national and State governments to
deal with the issues of affordable housing and to provide a
workable public mental health policy.

     The city attorney's office views the homeless issue as a
fundamentally moral one because of the larger-scale national
failures that caused the problem.  It also holds that local
government, including the police department, must provide a
solution, albeit temporary and incomplete, until effective
long-range national and State public policies are put into
effect.

     As an extension of these beliefs, several changes in
prosecutorial policies were instituted.  These changes reflected
no prosecutions for public intoxication and no prosecutions for
"economic" offenses, such as sleeping in public parks,
possession of shopping carts, and other misdemeanors and
infractions which are, for the homeless, oftentimes necessary to
their survival.  The city attorney's office also believed
alcoholism to be a disease and that jail was not a suitable
alternative to a detoxification center.  There is a further
belief that many of the applicable infractions spelled out in
the Santa Monica Municipal Code are economically based and
should not be used against a class of persons who have few, if
any, financial options.

Menace

     The alternative philosophy holds that while the problems of
the homeless are unfortunate, a city of 8.2 square miles cannot
and should not attempt to deal with an issue of this magnitude.
This point of view was espoused by both business groups and
individual citizens who find themselves confronted by persons
who are often intoxicated and/or mentally unstable.  This group
views the role of local government, and in particular the police
department and the city attorney's office, as one of pressure
and enforcement--even to the point of moving the problem across
geographical lines into the City of Los Angeles.

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE HOMELESS

     Predictably, the police department found itself squarely in
the middle between these two opposing points of view.  The
demand for compassion often conflicted with the demand for
enforcement.  Additionally, because of the political sensitivity
involved, there was little specific direction from the city
government.

     Three distinct problem areas emerged for the police
department from this philosophical debate:  1) The conflict over
the use of public facilities, 2) public demands for enforcement
action against activities that are often only marginally
criminal, and 3) the need to provide police service to an
economically disenfranchised class of people.  All three of
these problem areas needed to be addressed against a backdrop of
preserving constitutional liberties for all citizens.

Use of Public Facilities

     The first problem area, that of the conflict over use of
public facilities, is nowhere more clearly illustrated than in
Palisades Park.  The park is a narrow strip of land, 1-1/2 miles
long, located along the bluffs that overlook the Pacific Coast
Highway and the Pacific Ocean.  At the extreme south end of the
park is the entrance to Santa Monica Pier.  The pier, and the
park area adjacent to it, is a major tourist attraction.  In
addition, a senior citizens center located there serves as a
major recreational area for Santa Monica's senior community.

     The park is also one of the major gathering places for the
city's homeless population.  For nearly 5 years, it was the site
of the city's feeding programs.  Additionally, it is in close
proximity to several low-cost bars, liquor stores, and motels.
During daylight hours, it is not uncommon to see literally
dozens of homeless people sleeping on the ground adjacent to
senior citizens attempting to use the outdoor shuffleboard
court.  The combination of senior citizens, tourists, and
homeless people produced demands that something be done about
getting rid of the homeless problem.

     A traditional law enforcement response in times past would
have been simply to advise the homeless people to leave the
area.  Indeed, the concept of law enforcement officers moving
``undesirables'' along is not new. However, from both a moral
and a legal standpoint, it is no longer an acceptable or
practical method.  Officers might be able to move the transients
out of the park temporarily, but the fact that the city's
feeding programs were operated there specifically for the
homeless guaranteed that they would return.  Additionally, when
homeless people believed that they were the victims of police
harassment, they often brought their complaints to the attention
of the police department's Internal Affairs Unit.

     Frustrated officers found that arrests and citations for
drinking in the park, sleeping after midnight in the park, and
panhandling were not being consistently prosecuted.  The
response was predictable.  Officers began to issue warnings or
simply ignore the situation when possible.  Thus, in spite of
great public pressure, the homeless remained in the park and the
problem remained unsolved.

Panhandling

     The second problem area, the demand for enforcement action
for marginal criminal activities, is best illustrated by the
problem of panhandling.  There is a local law that makes it a
misdemeanor to solicit money. (1)  This law, together with a
similarly worded municipal code ordinance, has been used to deal
with those homeless people who ask for "spare change."  This
activity is the one in which citizens experience their most
direct contact with the homeless.  It can be a frightening
encounter and the one fo