Item B: Ordinance on Downtown Public Safety Zone

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predatory individuals in downtown who made victims of unsupervised youth, there was the larger question of whether the City could, without due process, determine where people could or could not be. Mr. Valle, an organizer of the forum, said his focus had been not on the location of the forum but the balance on the panel, but he appreciated Mr. Mueller’s remarks about the location. Speaking to the crime categories on page 8 of the report, Mr. Valle asked for specific examples of disorderly/harassment crimes. Lt. Mozan emphasized the department’s focus on criminal behavior and indicated the most frequent offense involved in disorderly conduct was fighting. Physical harassment was generally when one was subjected to unwanted physical contact and was also a result of fights. Mr. Valle hoped the department’s focus was on crime and not behavior. Lt. Mozan said that the police could not issue an exclusion order in the absence of a crime. If an individual committed a crime that fell within the list of excluded violations, that person was eligible for the exclusion process. Mr. Valle averred that he had heard that the EPD was “de-policing” and asked if the zone could be a way for officers to “over police” the area in question. Lt. Mozan said the department was not talking about “de-policing” when it added staff to downtown. He defined “de-policing” as when officers chose not to take action based on a preconceived notion; in this case, the EPD deployed officers downtown to make downtown safer, address quality of life issues, and enforce the law. The courts had indicated to the EPD that the ordinance was used in a judicious and focused manner toward only the chronic and most predatory offenders in the core. Not everyone who received a ticket for an offense downtown received an exclusion order; only a few were handed out in comparison to the hundreds of arrests made by downtown officers. Mr. Valle asked if officers received training on the DPSZ ordinance. Lt. Mozan said yes. Sgt. Fitzpatrick described the training the officers received and noted the department’s consultation with legal counsel to ensure that officers were acting legally. Mr. Alsup shared Mr. Laue’s concerns about due process. He did not think the system was working for those being victimized because of the inability of the County to hold people in the jail. Low-level criminals were out of the jail in hours and there was no accountability. At-risk youth were in danger, and he thought those factors needed to be considered. Speaking to the ACLU’s recommendations, Mr. Alsup expressed interest as to how that those suggestions could be implemented. He asked if the City could track those with multiple offenses so after a certain number of offenses a judge could exclude them from downtown without the need for such an ordinance, or did such a system constitute double-jeopardy. He would support such a system if it could be put into place. Mr. Alsup doubted the constitutionality of a DPSZ if imposed community-wide. Sgt. Fitzpatrick agreed with Mr. Alsup that the system was failing victims. He said it was not uncommon for an officer to deal with the same person one day as a suspect, one day as a witness, and one day as a victim. He also pointed out that in some cases a police officer was the only adult a youth could turn to. Sgt. Fitzpatrick recommended that the ordinance be modified to include sex offenses. Ms. Nelson termed the forum location unfortunate but pointed out that those who had been excluded from downtown could speak on the DPSZ at a City Council meeting. While she agreed that funding for social services and addiction treatment was inadequate, people had the right to drink if they chose. However, they did not have the right to violate the law. Such violations were why people were excluded. Ms. Nelson said the data indicated many of those excluded from downtown were frequent offenders with long criminal records. Ms. Nelson found the DPSZ useful in reducing crime through removing such individuals from the area. She believed the DPSZ, in combination with social services, was necessary to increase public safety downtown.