Board to review request to police panhandlers
By Craig Campbell, News Staff
News
Nov 20, 2009
http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/news/article/195036
Police will review what powers they may, or may not, have to deal with panhandlers and loiterers in downtown Hamilton after Tourism Hamilton asked for an update on plans for the city’s core.
Chief Brian Mullan said a meeting with the Tourism Hamilton board was scheduled this week to discuss the request. But he suggested loitering and panhandling are not necessarily policing issues.
In a letter to Hamilton Police Services Board chair Bernie Morelli, Tourism Hamilton board president Mark Farrugia stated: “At a recent board meeting of Tourism Hamilton, the Board discussed the impact panhandlers and loiterers are having on conventions and events hosted in the downtown core.”
Farrugia identified areas around Copps Coliseum, Summers Lane –between the convention centre and art gallery, King Street and Gore Park as “particularly troublesome”. The letter states there is a perception among some convention and event planners that Hamilton’s downtown is not safe.
At Tuesday afternoon’s Police Services Board meeting, Mullan noted the board has approved several programs in the downtown, including security cameras and a mounted unit, to help address ongoing perceptions of downtown Hamilton as a dangerous place.
“I think we’ve progressed dynamically from where we were three, four or five years ago,” Mullan said.
But he said some of the issues Farrugia raises in the letter are not related to policing, that panhandlers and loiterers are beyond the police service’s control.
Police board member Mayor Fred Eisenberger said he’d like a report from police staff on what the service can do, and can not do, in relation panhandlers and loiters, as well as summarizing what has already been done to change perceptions of the downtown.