I missed this one, but now there are at least 3 “collective community bans” the police department has initiated, the one on State St. (Cap Times), the one with the north and east side hotels and one at E. Wash and E. Johnson at the Hawthorne Library area.
HOW DID I HEAR ABOUT IT
I heard about this one at the goofy meeting yesterday
2:30 PM CHIEF KOVAL’S COMMUNITY COUNCIL ROOM GR22 CCB
This was the only agenda item
1.MPD’s Role in Neighborhoods – Perspective from a Neighborhood Officer
That part of the agenda lasted about a half hour. The rest of the time (another hour) they talked about know by the age three if kids are going to struggle and by grade three if they can’t read that they will be headed towards jail. Hardly any more discussion about neighborhood officers or policing after that.
WHAT I LEARNED
Anyways, this is what i learned about 6 minutes in to the meeting.
Community Police David Dexheimer is talking about his role in the community. He says they work on emerging issues and have more in depth responses to chronic issues. He says one of the first things Captain Lengfeld did in his district was get the supervisors together and they identified certain problems, and elected to put some concentration into the Emerson East and Eken Park Neighborhoods (hmmm, by OM Village), north of East Washington Ave, First St to N. Oak or Marquette St., which includes East High. He says the neighborhood has been overlooked, there has been chronic low grade issues of all sorts, a little bit of drug dealing, panhandling, open intoxicants, those sorts of things. They had already started working on a project with the business corridor to do a “collective community ban” which was based on the work Jeff Pharo did on State St. because they were seeing some of those same things emerging in the business corridor on E. Washington, that program works with the idea that if one merchant is having problems with a customer, that likely that customer is causing trouble along the whole corridor so if a violation of city ordinance or state law occurs we can have that person banned not from just one property, but from the entire area. One of those things that is indicative of how we can work, we can work together collaboratively with the business community or whoever the stakeholder is to develop those types of programs. They are hopeful that will have an impact on quality of life, not just along the corridor but into the residential neighborhoods as well.
Chief Mike Koval jumps in here and asks that for those who are not familiar with the ban implications, can you talk about the scope or duration of the ban and what it entails? What kind of a shelf life does it have?
Dex (that’s what everyone calls him) says its a one year ban, they have a public library branch in there and also city health office and we recognize that obviously people have to get essential services, or we have a Walgreens there where maybe someone gets prescriptions and even tho Walgreens is a participant, they can elect to say that they still need to have that relationship with that customer. In general it is a one year ban and it sends a pretty strong message that they have done something that harms the community and this is our way to say, together, we want that to stop. That’s just one project. In a way it does come across as more punitive and it addresses a problem that already exists.
He moves on to talk about an area with a spike in calls where they are working with building inspection and her neighborhood to help the house stick out less.
One of the participants, Jeff Burkhart, Executive Director at the Literacy Council asks what types of offenses that people are banned for?
Dex says that it is a mix of businesses with fast food restaurants, they have Walgreens and 2 liquor stores, the check cashing places, its about 4 blocks and he thinks that it might be due to some of the work that has been done on State St, but the displacement of people who are chronically addicted to alcohol who don’t have a better place to spend the day are spending it in that neighborhood and so what would get someone into the ban situation would be a city ordinance violation or a state law violation. Typically its trespassing, open alcohol, occassionally a retail theft. (All crimes of poverty and homelessness)
Koval says, but it would need to be more than one isolated incident, right?
Dex says no, not necessarily?
Koval says, depending up on the gravity of the offense?
Dex says not necessarily, there is nothing in the provisions that say you have to have more than one, so no.
Koval asks if you look at them on a case by case basis to see if it is worthy of that? If I’m new to the neighborhood and I just came from Mardi Gras where you can have an open intox anywhere at any time and I have an open beer at the parking lot by Walgreens and I get pinched by you, will that in and of itself ban me?
Dex says potentially.
Koval says, really? (very animatedly)
Dex says he hadn’t thought about that, you bring up a good point.
Koval asks how many are on the list?
Dex says about 10, and if you are looking for a pattern, almost all of it is alcohol related.
Linda Kethcam, Executive Director at Madison Urban Ministry asks if there is a racial break down of the people on the list.
Dex says off the top of his head he doesn’t know, its pretty mixed.
Another person, maybe Jeff, asks if they are folks who are all homeless?
Dex says maybe 50/50.
Koval moves on . . . .
FOLLOW UP
At first I thought he was talking about the hotel/motel ban, because he also worked on that. So I dug around and this is what I found. It’s been operating since September.
I think it was initially sold differently than described above based on the supporters and the questions from the Chief. Channel 3 even said it was repeat offenders.
What is it?
A new safety program to help police and business owners work together to deal with repeat offenders. The program depends on voluntary business and citizen participation and is coordinated through the Madison Police Department. The program has been reviewed by the Madison City Attorney’s Office, and is endorsed by Mayor Soglin and Alderpersons Marsha Rummel and Larry Palm.
These “bans” get sold on serious violations (weapons, battery) but are often used for crimes of poverty and homelessness (trespassing, depositing human waste, open intoxicants, being in a park after 10:00)
Who is subject to this ban? This ban is based only on the behavior of the subject and is triggered by arrest. Anyone who is arrested for an offense that occurs on private property can be subject to this ban. Offenses can include, but are not limited to, retail theft, liquor law violations, disorderly conduct, battery, depositing human waste, trespassing, theft, burglary and weapons violations. Any criminal charge and violation of most city ordinances can result in application of this ban.
From the chief’s example you can see how it is being used.
Apparently if you are caught violating the ban, the one year clock starts over, resulting in an ongoing ban. Also, I think there is a lot of room for confusion, the business can allow you one day, and then maybe not another? I can see how this might be confusing to the person banned. My guess is you’re sober you’re ok, you’re drunk or smelly, you are not.
Businesses and properties that participate do so voluntarily, and can stop participation at any time. They can also choose to allow a banned person into their property on an individual basis. The originating business can rescind the ban, which will remove the banned person from the entire ban (but that person could potentially be banned again by another participating property or business with another arrest).
On State St. I thought this was based on truly repeat offenders, but maybe not. If not, I don’t understand why they don’t have a progressive banning system for more minor offenses (open intoxicants, depositing waste), ban for the day, a week, a month, then 3 months, then 6 months, then a year, like the libraries and the CCB (City County Building) do. If the offense is more serious, then maybe ban for longer times up front. If you want the behavior to stop, you do progressive discipline, if you want to just displace people to another area, which it sounds like they believe happened here, well, that’s not very effective in stopping the behavior.
I have requested a list of all ban lists that exist. I have seen them in the past, but they vary in the quality of information I get. For example in 2013, I got this Bans . In 2014, I got this. Coll Comm Ban List Not sure why the list went from so large (over 175 people) to so small and complete with mug shots (13 people).
If you ask me, this sounds like “community policing” gone awry. No “relationship building” here, not alternatives sought, none of the thinks Koval has been preaching in his public rambling sessions (includes raw video footage of Downtown, West and South listening sessions). As the County Board Supervisor in the area said, “Sorry, MPD, I just don’t think you can use the words “collective” and “community” with a ban plan.”
Even worse, is this legal? It’s near impossible to get national and state non-profit law programs to look at these issues unless its already on their agenda (i.e. my porch, Mr. Vang’s adventures, and the Northport incident and Token Creek winter), and then it comes with strings, you have to promise to get people to help with the legwork, probably hundreds of hours, more volunteer time, so I’m not sure we’ll see a legal challenge to this, but it certainly seems there should be one.
