Plans for crackdown on aggressive panhandling get vetting, attract support and criticism

Plans to crack down on aggressive panhandling in Atlanta may have to be reformulated.

The city's current panhandling ordinance is rarely, if ever, enforced, according to police and attorneys who spoke recently to city council. Atlanta's anti-panhandling ordinance is "effectively, a worthless piece of paper" and might have to be scrapped or extensively rewritten to make it enforceable, said Michael J. Bond, chair of the City Council's public safety committee.

Atlanta has been trying to push back against panhandling for years, partly to appease downtown residents and partly to protect the city's lucrative tourism and convention industries, which bring in hundreds of thousands of visitors and millions in spending and taxes. And then there are the hundreds of thousands of workers who commute into the city from all over the metro region.

Mayor Kasim Reed took office in 2010 vowing to curb professional begging.

But a recent discussion over whether the city should toughen its existing ordinance revealed that since 2005, Atlanta police have not arrested people under the city's ordinance against "commercial solicitation," which was defined as asking for a donation of money "or other thing of value" without a permit. That doesn't include those sitting passively with a sign.

People have been arrested for panhandling-related infractions such as disorderly conduct.

Earlier this month, Bond proposed a new law that would mandate six months of jail time after a third conviction on charges of aggressive panhandling. Under current law, the penalties for a third conviction include a fine up to $1,000 and/or imprisonment, not to exceed 30 days.

Anita Beaty, Executive Director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, called the proposed stiffer penalties misguided and "deeply destructive."

The latest proposal, which may be the subject of another work session, includes a provision specifically prohibiting panhandlers from touching passersby and providing for jail terms of up to six months for violators.

Bond said the proposed tougher rules were aimed at a relatively small group of aggressive panhandlers and were not an attempt to victimize the homeless. Bond's plan would require inmate assessment for services including supportive or transitional housing, mental health services, job training and substance abuse treatment.

But it appears more fundamental changes may be necessary to give the ordinance teeth. The current ordinance allows for warnings, written citations and court summons for aggressive panhandlers, but not for arrests, said city solicitor Raines Carter.

"We could warn them," said Atlanta Police Maj. Wayne Whitmire, who oversees the department's downtown zone. "They could go down the street and we could warn them again."

Previous attempts to reduce panhandling in Atlanta have not achieved the desired effect. The city has an ordinance prohibiting "commercial solicitation" in a number of designated areas. That ordinance, passed with great fanfare in 2005, requires a mental health and substance abuse evaluations for violators.

Those follow-ups are not happening, Whitmire said.

Speakers at public hearing last week said panhandling, sometimes before sunrise on semi-abandoned streets, made them feel unsafe or frustrated their attempts to bring business to Atlanta's downtown. William "Chick" Ciccaglione, general manager of Underground Atlanta, said business deals have been scuttled when potential investors were panhandled on the property or nearby.

One hotel manager said aggressive panhandlers should not feel comfortable around his Peachtree Street hotel, given the number of police from the Atlanta Police Department and MARTA patrolling the area near Underground. But panhandlers have basically set up shop in the area, he said.

Calls by business owners and downtown residents for tougher enforcement met resistance from homeless advocates and civil rights activists who said it would punish poor people, many of them African-American.