TRAVERSE CITY — An amendment that would have allowed Traverse City police to arrest people not complying with the No-Camping Ordinance in city parks did not pass.
At the April 21 meeting, Traverse City Commissioners voted 4 to 3 against an amendment to the city’s No-Camping Ordinance.
The new amendment to the No-Camping Ordinance would have added steps for the Traverse City Police Department to issue tickets or arrest people who continue to violate the ordinance.
A new amendment to the ordinance would have allowed police to ask a person to leave a city park for the rest of the day. If they refused, they could be charged and arrested for trespassing. City Commissioner Mitchell Treadwell said there are laws in place that already give TCPD this ability.
“I thought that it could be unfairly punitive in some cases,” Treadwell said. “A lot of the behavior that people might dislike that can happen in parks is subject to state law already. So, if somebody is operating a motor vehicle recklessly, is being drunk and disorderly, is physically harassing or threatening other people. All those things are already subject to local and state law and could be subject to arrest. So, I felt that this new ordinance was unnecessary.”
The amendment was another part of Chief Matt Richmond’s Public Safety Plan, which includes closing the pines. However, this vote did not have any effect on the no-camping enforcement date in the pines, planned for May 6.
“This is not criminalizing homelessness. This is enforcing our camping ordinance throughout the city,” says Richmond, “We have been enforcing camping everywhere but the pines. This is to help those individuals get to a better place. Through community outreach, through community service providers. And I think a lot of these individuals knew that this day was coming.”
Richmond says the amendment would have added another layer of enforcement when it comes to non-compliance issues.
“We continue to be in contact with the city attorney and the county prosecutor as we move forward, to the day when we will begin to enforce our camping ordinance. They are vital to this situation. We want to make sure that we’re doing everything right.”