Business owners say new trespass law working
Police to see statistical proof of ban on unwieldy patrons today
A statistical report card on the first six month sofa new police approach to dealing with unwanted people in businesses will arrive Wednesday, but a veteran member of the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry already has his own thoughts on it: Unnecessary and discriminatory.
Peter Gilmer acknowledges businesses sometimes face troublesome people, but added they and police already have many legal tools, such as laws covering public intoxication or minor criminal charges. Why, he asked, add more?
There’s another problem with this new approach, started last summer, Gilmer said. It can mean a $250 fine for those convicted under it, a huge financial hardship for somebody with low or no income, and possibly living on the street.
The Regina Board of Police Commissioners will see statistics on the new approach at its Wednesday morning meeting. It was put in place after a city panhandling bylaw was removed in 2009 and an assault-by-trespass section of the Criminal Code was repealed in 2012.
Depending on your perspective, the new approach is either a creative use of the law to help harried business owners and their customers — or a heavy-handed mission to criminalize poverty and mental illness.
Lovella Jones, operations manager for the Downtown Regina Business Improvement District, said it’s “definitely positive” because it gives businesses a legal framework for action. She said it also gives police a starting point to determine if an individual is a troublemaker, or if they instead need help for, say, mental health issues.
That’s similar to the view of Cornwall Centre general manager Doug Kozak, who said his security personnel tell him the new approach has been “very positive” with the volume of problems substantially down. Like Jones, he differentiated between those who cause problems because of drug or alcohol abuse, and thus respond to trespassing bans — and those with mental health issues, who can’t.
“It’s a backstop,” said Chamber of Commerce CEO John Hopkins, adding, “I hope it isn’t used too much because the vast majority of people don’t create any problems whatsoever.”
On the other side of the issue, three speakers showed at up at last week’s city council budget meeting to criticize the police chief over the new approach.
It uses the province’s 2009 provincial Trespass to Property Act as a basis to allow businesses to ban so-called unwanted persons. If the ban is violated, police can issue a summary offence ticket.
According to a police report tabled last spring, police responded to 5,600 calls at downtown businesses for incidents such as intoxicated persons, fights, harassment and shoplifting in the past two years.
Gilmer said he’s heard that 136 tickets have been issued since the new approach began last spring, with 38 people fined.
“I think it’s unnecessary,” he said. “It criminalizes desperate people.”