(The Center Square) – Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall confirmed Monday that changes are on the way after officers didn’t issue any citations or service referrals as a result of the new citywide camping ban.
The Spokane City Council passed the law in June after the state invalidated a voter-approved measure in April that outlawed camping within 1,000-feet of a school, park or daycare. The court said Spokane could reinstate it via the council, but the progressive majority passed Mayor Lisa Brown’s ban instead.
Her version includes provisions that allow individuals to avoid citations if they move down the street or accept housing and treatment services. It took effect on Aug. 6, and two months later, Hall said his officers have only been able to cite people camping for other offenses, such as assault or trespassing.
“The issue wasn’t with discretion,” Hall told the council. “The issue was with the compliance language.”
He said the ordinance requires the Spokane Police Department to ask people to move down the street, so once someone complies, the officer’s work is done. SPD can’t even collect names to track if officers are stopping the same people, since the law requires reasonable suspicion or probable cause for that.
The goal was to get as many people as possible to voluntarily accept treatment and housing services, but Councilmember Kitty Klitzke acknowledged issues with the obstruction language on Monday. Even she cited experiences taking her daughter to ballet and reporting people for lying outside the studio.
“They won’t address the person unless they’re completely all the way across the sidewalk,” she said.
Hall wants that additional discretion so that officers can decide when to initiate an enforcement action and collect data to address repeat offenders. He said the administration is now open to modifying the camping ban to address these issues and hold several high utilizers of the justice system accountable.
SPD conducted an emphasis around downtown last fall, which only resulted in 13 service referrals out of the 190 contacts that month. All of those contacts were among 143 individuals, who accounted for 2,192 local arrests in their lifetime; however, around 70 of them accounted for over 2,000 arrests.
“I would be supportive of this as like an emergency ordinance fix so that it could be implemented right away,” Councilmember Zack Zappone said after noting he spoke with the administration last weekend, “without, you know, the month and a half it takes after an ordinance is passed to be implemented.”
According to a news release, the administration will host a press conference on Tuesday to outline the changes ahead. Those plans “include strategies to end public camping and open drug use” while also expanding street outreach to funnel people into the housing navigation center before other services.
The administration says staff will draft the updated camping ban with input from the community and business owners, many of whom have called on the council to reinstate the voter-approved measure.
Councilmember Jonthan Bingle said neither he nor Councilmember Michael Cathcart has been engaged on this despite representing downtown. They plan to reintroduce the voter-approved version later this month, though much of the progressive majority held off on offering support when asked last week.
One thing Hall mentioned wanting to see in the next camping ban is area restrictions, which a judge could impose to prohibit individuals from entering areas where they’ve caused problems in the past.
“We want outreach to people in crisis. We also want public camping and open drug use to end, for the sake of people who are living outside and struggling, and for our collective sense of safety,” Brown wrote. “This work is about balance, and we are committed to connecting people to the resources they need, while also creating an enforcement mechanism for those who continually choose to violate the law.”
