Rent-a-cops paid for by the Portland Business Alliance (PBA)
were caught enforcing the city’s controversial new sit-lie ordinance
two days before its official enforcement date last week—despite
repeated assurances they would only conduct “community outreach” on the
law, leaving its actual enforcement to the cops.
Dale Hardway, a formerly homeless Portlander who now works in a
building on SW 6th and Alder, was on the sidewalk during his morning
break on Tuesday, August 28, when he saw three street kids walking away
around the corner. A rent-a-cop working for the PBA’s Clean and Safe
program for Portland Patrol, Inc. (PPI) had just spoken with the
kids.
“I ran after the kids and asked them if he’d run them off,”
continues Hardway. “And they told me he’d said they couldn’t be there
because of the new sit-lie ordinance, and that they’d have to leave or
face arrest and a possible fine.”
Council voted to approve the sit-lie law on August 15, but specified
that the law wouldn’t be enforced until August 30. Until then, only
“community education” could take place. And after August 30, only
specially trained police officers are supposed to enforce the law. But
given Hardway’s account, it seems PPI officers are over-eager to use
the law to move homeless people along.
That Tuesday, Hardway says he then rounded the corner to go back to
work, and saw the same PPI officer talking to two more kids sitting
outside a Rite Aid. Frustrated, he decided to snap a photograph of the
rent-a-cop on his cell phone.
“They were asking the officer why they had to leave,” says Hardway.
“And he told them about the sit-lie ordinance. So I asked him what
right he had to ask them to leave, because he’s [an employee of] Clean
and Safe, not a police officer. I told him, ‘You can’t ask anyone to
move.'”
“Yes, I can,” the guard allegedly responded.
Hardway says he asked the PPI officer for his name, and the name of
his supervisor, neither of which he provided. (PPI’s officers are
supposed to provide business cards to people unhappy with their
service, as part of a new oversight process for PPI announced last
month by the mayor’s office.)
Hardway’s friend and coworker, Dan Kemble, also saw the incident and
corroborates Hardway’s version of events.
The PPI guard’s behavior appears to contradict the message Monica
Goracke of the Oregon Law Center gave to a meeting of private security
providers last week, just three hours after the alleged incident took
place. Goracke is co-chair of the mayor’s Street Access for Everyone
(SAFE) committee, which came up with the law.
“My hope is that [the law] stays easy to understand and that it does
not become some sort of tool to move people along,” Goracke said. “I
think that’s important so that everybody still feels welcome downtown
and we don’t have conflict, and I think that’s the way the law can and
should work.”
Patrick Nolen, of homeless activist nonprofit Sisters of the Road,
who also sits on the SAFE committee, says he is disappointed that PPI
officers seem to have jumped the gun on enforcing the new
ordinance.
“I’ve heard about two other instances [of PPI guards enforcing the
ordinance in August], but neither of them had enough hard data to go
on,” he says.
“This is worrying because we had hoped that this kind of thing would
not happen,” continues Nolen. “That it wouldn’t be used just as a
‘move-along law.’ Sisters never supported this law, we’ve clearly
stated on more than one occasion that the city did not need this law,
and then to come back, and see that it’s not even the people who have
been trained to do the job who are enforcing it, is disappointing.”
“If the interaction you are describing did take place as you
described, then I too feel disappointed,” says Goracke.
“Education should not include the words ‘You have to move,’ but
rather should be a low-key conversation asking people if they are aware
of the law, and giving them information about where else they can sit
and where they can seek resources if necessary. Only trained
Oregon peace officers (i.e. Portland Police Bureau officers) may
tell people not to sit or lie on the sidewalk.”
The Portland Business Alliance, PPI, and a representative from the
mayor’s office all refused the opportunity for comment on the incident
by press time.