AMHERST — A new bylaw that will allow police officers to issue $300 tickets to anyone who urinates or defecates in a public place or in view of a public spot, rather than making an arrest on a charge of disorderly conduct, is now on the books.
After a lengthy discussion by councilors Monday, with some advocating for a tiered system that could include a community service requirement, the Town Council voted 10-2 to adopt the bylaw, which allows for both criminal and noncriminal $300 fines.
The final vote came after an effort by At Large Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke, who brought forward the original bylaw, and District 2 Councilor Pat De Angelis, to establish a tiered system that would first include a warning notice and mandatory five hours of community service, followed by a $100 fine for a second offense and a $300 fine only for third and subsequent offenses.
Police Chief Gabriel Ting told councilors his preference was for the $300 fine from the first offense, comparing it to what exists when police find unlicensed kegs and people walking on streets with open containers of alcohol, or when responding to nuisance house violations.
Most of those who will get tickets, he said, are college-age people.
“The majority of instances come from neighborhood parties, certainly from the center of town our officers will encounter folks coming to and from the bars using the sidewalks and bushes, in public view, to urinate,” Ting said.
The bylaw exempts from enforcement those with verified medical conditions and defines public places as “any street, alley, sidewalk, parking lot, park, playground, school yard, cemetery (or) floor of any building.”
The rationale for having a tiered system instead was about targeting those who are living on the streets and don’t have homes to go to.
DeAngelis said this could mean more work for police, but would be appropriate, considering the town only can issue a $200 fine for illegally discharging a gun.
“I support some bylaw, but … $300 is not something that every student, particularly every homeless person, has at the ready to keep themselves from getting a criminal record,” DeAngelis said.
In advocating for community service, DeAngelis said, “I want to see the people who are doing this really cleaning something up and doing something to restore what they messed.”
Ting said officers already have avenues for discretion and recognize that those in the unhoused population have limited options. He said the department has a system of checks and balances to make sure that homeless individuals are not getting unreasonable fines.
DeAngelis and District 1 Councilor Cathy Schoen were the only councilors to vote against adopting the measure, with District 5 Councilor Bob Hegner absent.
Schoen wondered why there has to be any criminal aspect to the bylaw, adding that five hours of community service seems like a lot of work for someone who might get picked up at 3 a.m.
Ting explained that public urination and defecation are already considered criminal offenses under state law. He also said the town couldn’t impose community service, which is something only a judge could do.
“I don’t think we have the authority to force someone to do five hours of community service,” Ting said.
The tiered approach was eventually removed in a 7-5 vote by councilors. Those voting to remove it were Hanneke, District 1 Councilor Ndifreke Ette, Council President Lynn Griesemer, District 4 Councilors Pam Rooney and Jennifer Taub, District 3 Councilor George Ryan and At Large Councilor Andy Steinberg.
Those voting to retain it were De Angelis, Schoen, District 3 Councilor Heather Hala Lord, At Large Councilor Ellisha Walker and District 5 Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier.
Ting said officers wouldn’t issue a written warning with no fine, observing that there are no longer written warnings for noise complaints.
“If they have to issue a written warning, they just wouldn’t do it,” Ting said. “It just creates far too much paperwork that goes nowhere.”
Steinberg said he was concerned with the tiered approach, and said a fine of less than $300 wouldn’t make sense since, for college students, it would be viewed as the “cost of having fun.” He also doubted that the same individual would be caught multiple times, thus creating a meaningless action.
“It doesn’t really serve a purpose to do less, because you want to make it strong enough that at least it rings a bell and it gets people seriously thinking about it,” Steinberg said
Ryan said the tiered approach would be a waste of time, and that fines related to problems affecting quality of life issues are supposed to sting.
Hanneke said the town has many tiered bylaws, such as those centered on wage and tip theft, plastic bags and Styrofoam, and she didn’t agree that a fine was the only way to get a message across.
“You don’t need a fine to be told this is behavior that is unacceptable,” Hanneke said. “A warning can be sufficient.”
Lord said she’s been opposed to criminalization of urination and defecation, due to the harms on the unhoused and homeless or certain people with medical issues, but said she understands the state law is needed to prevent larger crimes.
While some had suggested waiting on a bylaw until a public downtown restroom building is opened, Ting said even if there is a place like that in downtown, it doesn’t mean problems would go away elsewhere, like at party houses on Belchertown Road.
Ting said the hope is that, in the same way open container violations decline after the first two weeks of the fall semester, this would stem behavior of using parks and the parking garage as restrooms.
“If they know this is out there, word will spread,” Ting said.