Item 4: Ordinance on Downtown Public Safety Zone

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offenders in the downtown core. If there was adequate jail bed capacity, municipal offenders would more likely be arrested and held in custody between their arraignment and trial date. Without adequate capacity, defendants are more frequently released prior to their court date. To address public safety, the community must have at minimum three equally important functions. First, there must be appropriate rules and laws to govern behavior. Second, there must be an enforcement capability to cite or arrest offenders. Last, there must be adequate consequences to hold offenders accountable for their actions. Other services to support individuals in crisis like CAHOOTS, youth services, and perhaps what is produced by the Mayor’s recently formed task group on homelessness will also be critical to improving safety downtown. The policing team has and will continue to engage in problem-solving policing and community policing efforts. Eugene has adequate laws governing behavior, and increased funding for downtown enforcement has strengthened the Police Department’s ability to create safety in the downtown core. However, with Lane County’s critical jail bed funding issues (beds are down this last July from 280 to 196 beds and likely to decrease further in FY 2013) it is vital that the community maintains adequate consequences to hold offenders accountable and to reduce crime and manage recidivism. With vacancy savings, the Police Department was able to complete a one-time transfer of funds to the Municipal Court to purchase ten additional beds in FY 2012 to supplement the 25 municipal beds provided by council budget allocation. This FY 2012 one-time expenditure will not reoccur, now that the vacancies have been filled. While there have been over 5,000 arrests and citations in the downtown core for which an exclusion citation could have been issued, only 185 exclusions have been made. This indicates that the police, the prosecutor, and judges have been thoughtful in how the ordinance has been used. The ordinance raises the concern of civil liberties and the City Attorney is confident it is defensible and would tolerate constitutional challenge. While the ordinance is not a perfect solution, it does give relief from the most chronic offenders to the downtown area while jail capacity is at an all-time low and as the City is experiencing some forward momentum in its center. Based on the discussion at the January 25 work session, an ordinance has been drafted. It includes two amendments from the current legislation. 1)Section one of the ordinance aligns the overall enforcement action to council intent and current practice. The current language in the ordinance would require that every violation “shall” receive an exclusion citation. Current practice and council intent is more permissive, allowing discretion in determining the circumstances when an exclusion citation is issued. This change replaces the word “shall” with the word “may”. 2)Section two of the ordinance amends the sunset date from April 30, 2012 to April 30, 2014. A public hearing was held February 21, 2012. Twenty-nine people spoke in opposition to the extension of the public safety zone, and 14 spoke in favor of the extension. Several questions were raised at the public hearing, which are listed below with department’s response. Additional analysis will be forwarded to the City Council as it becomes available. All data is for the time period August 2008 through November 2011. A.Provide a number and percent of people who have been excluded more than once. Twenty-nine S:\CMO\2012 Council Agendas\M120227\S1202274.doc