Police begin enforcing no camping law
City wants voluntary compliance, but officers will issue citations, make arrests
CHICO » People camping in Chico’s parks could begin to get citations after having been given 72 hours to leave, as the city begins enforcing the updated park ordinance.
Campers in some areas of Bidwell Park near Annie’s Glen were given printed notices Friday to move their encampments within 72 hours.
This means Monday was the “minimum day” for them to leave, Chico Police Chief Matt Madden said.
But that doesn’t mean people were necessarily asked by the Chico Police Department’s Target Team to immediately leave Monday, city staff claimed.
City Manager Mark Orme said while there isn’t a specific hour when enforcement begins, enforcement would happen swiftly, “possibly Monday … in a matter of hours and days, rather than weeks and months.”
“Enforcement is priority … it is by no means being delayed,” Orme said. However, the Chico Police Department is having to prioritize its response due to “dealing with a lot of scenarios.”
“It’s not as if we have one specific area we can dump all of our resources into,” Orme added.
Madden said enforcement in the parks will look like either citations or physical arrests.
“We’re still trying to seek voluntary compliance,” he said. “We’re out there every day. Even with the 72-hour notice, if folks are making plans and doing things to be better and try to adhere to that notice, we’ll try to be understanding of that.”
After weeks of telling people about the changing of the ordinance, to enforcement of violations as misdemeanors, Madden said “If nobody’s going to move, then yes … it’s getting to the point where if we can’t get voluntary compliance … it could be by citations, it could also be by physical arrest.”
“We’re definitely focused on areas in the park that have obvious degradation that has occurred there … as the area where we’ve seen the biggest environmental concerns as well the illegal activity occurring.
While he added the Target Team is there to “make sure people have ample time,” to abide by the law, he said police are now going to be taking action to enforce the ordinance with citations or arrests.
The Target Team did not comment to clarify the process, but the city released a statement Monday that other media sources had reported “erroneous” details about enforcement of rules and regulations within Bidwell Park and other park areas/playgrounds.
“Reports that the city is moving forward with the use of the vacant Kmart building and the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds for sheltering persons experiencing homelessness are inaccurate; the city is unaware at this time of any availability of those properties as sheltering options for any agency or service provider,” the statement noted. “The city continues working with local service providers to explore any and all viable sheltering solutions, with the hope that a local service provider will be successful in those endeavors.”
The report continued that following the City Council’s direction, heightened enforcement of illegal behaviors within public spaces will continue “thereby amplifying the level of accountability and public expectation of safety, cleanliness and environmental stewardship within these areas.”
Councilor Scott Huber, who has been against the new enforcement directives from the City Council, also said while police are obligated to follow the direction of the council’s majority, he thinks going from citations to arrests for violators of the park ordinance for camping “sounds extreme.”
“I continue to believe … that eviction without a viable alternative is morally incorrect,” Huber said.
He said it also concerns him that no vacant properties are yet being found by the city to be capable of evaluation for an emergency shelter — “We’ve been talking about it for over a year.”
“No one wants our park free of campers more than I do. I just don’t believe that there is an appropriate way to do that without having an alternative place for them to go.”
Huber added he will participate in a protest of people being removed “without an alternative” at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at Cypress Street by the entrance to Bidwell Park.