(Host) Brattleboro police will be taking a hard line on disruptive activities in the downtown this summer.
Officers say it’s not about cracking down on young people but about cracking down on out-of-line behavior.
VPR’s Susan Keese has more.
(Host) Patrol officers handed out nine tickets in downtown Brattleboro last Friday night. The charges ranged from skateboarding, a $25 fine, to furnishing tobacco to a minor, a $100 offense.
Brattleboro Police Chief Gene Wrinn says it’s a sign of things to come.
Since last summer, his department has been dealing with complaints from merchants and pedestrians about groups of hangers-out blocking store fronts, sidewalks and parking lots.
For the past two months, they’ve stepped up foot patrols, and officers have been issuing verbal warnings.
(Wrinn) "And it hasn’t worked. We’ll issue a warning, we’ll drive around the block or walk around the block and it’s right back there again. So what we’re going to do is start using some of these town ordinances and state laws that are on the books – skate boarding on the roadways and sidewalks, littering, underage smoking. Any of the violations that are on the books, we’ll be taking enforcement action."
(Keese) Wrinn says that people do have a right to gather downtown. But if they’re asked by store owners to leave their property and refuse, they may be prosecuted for trespassing.
(Wrinn) "Loud, obnoxious and vulgar language – it’s not acceptable in the downtown, any area of town. Fighting and tumultuous behavior, again – that’s disorderly conduct. It’s a criminal violation and we will be looking at enforcing all those."
(Keese) Earlier this week a Brattleboro resident was fatally stabbed during a predawn argument near the town parking garage. Witnesses told police that the 41-year old man accused of the stabbing had been asking for money to buy cocaine.
Wrinn says that particular incident didn’t spark the move to stricter enforcement. But he said officers will be stepping up efforts to detect drug activity.
(Wrinn) "If people see police they will not openly deal drugs. What we will have to rely on is some type of interdiction — which means we will have to see a motor vehicle violation, stop a car and do some police work and go beyond the stop and see if there’s criminal activity afoot."
(Keese) Wrinn outlined the shift in policy to the Brattleboro select board this week, to mostly positive response.
But Select board member Dora Bouboulis voiced concern that, even though the police crackdown isn’t aimed specifically at youth, innocent teens could get caught up in the wide net police are casting.
She says she’d like to see police – and the community in general- continue to engage in dialogue rather than punishment to address the problems.
For VPR News, I’m Susan Keese.