TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Follow Up to Panhandling Report
DATE: February 23, 2004
This memorandum is in response to a request for information from a Council member concerning panhandling arrests.
BACKGROUND
On February 9, 2004, we reported to the Council that between June 1 and December 31, 2003, seventeen citations had been issued for violation of the panhandling ordinance.
A Council member asked for further analysis, including how these citations compared to last year concerning charges of aggressive panhandling.
DISCUSSION
In the first two quarters of the fiscal year 2002-2003 six citations for panhandling were issued. Four of the six were for aggressive panhandling. One incident actually resulted in an Armed Robbery charge also, when the suspect threatened the victim with a box cutter. The other citations were for soliciting after dark and soliciting within 20 feet of an ATM.
In the second half of fiscal year 2002-2003, five panhandling citations were issued, none for aggressive panhandling.
Of the seventeen citations issued in the first half of this fiscal year, none were for aggressive panhandling. Two were for soliciting along the roadways, one for soliciting at night at homes in a residential neighborhood, and fourteen were in the Central Business District. Of those fourteen, two were for soliciting at bus stops, one for soliciting within twenty feet of a bank entrance, and eleven for soliciting after dark.
SUMMARY
We believe that issues of aggressive panhandling have been minimized by consistent enforcement of the ordinance. We hope to maintain these results with continued enforcement.