 "Photo: Meghan Moriarty")
More than a year after its introduction, the hotly debated disorderly events ordinance was discussed during the City Council meeting Oct. 20.
The ordinance was intended to give police officers a means of dispersing crowds by issuing citations instead of using force.
“This is an alternative that is based on a number of things,” Chico Police Chief Mike Maloney said. “It’s based on the council wanting to give us a tool and it’s also based on the desire of members of the community to not have the police use higher levels of force.”
Maloney made a report to the City Council in response to a request it made approximately a month ago.
The report indicates the ordinance has been put into use nine times since its introduction May 15, 2008.
These nine instances were all events that legally could have been considered “unlawful assemblies,” the declaration of which would have allowed for force to be used, Maloney said.
Of the nine circumstances in which the ordinance was invoked, only three of them involved any kind of cases being filed and none of them resulted in citations being given in response to violation of the ordinance, he said.
After the City Council heard the report from Maloney and asked him some clarifying questions, it called for citizens to make statements expressing their opinions of the ordinance.
Four citizens made statements. Three of them were representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and one of them was a student who witnessed one of the events at which the ordinance was used.
The members of the ACLU and the student talked about their opinions on the most recent event in the report, when a student allegedly grabbed an officer’s handgun. The speakers made testimony about what they considered to be improper behavior on the part of the police officers involved and the supposed misuse of the ordinance as a means of breaking up a peaceful gathering.
The speakers also made comments on the need to keep the ordinance under review, suggesting the City Council require the Chico Police Department to make quarterly reports.
“We would request that you, the City Council, would not just assume that this is being implemented well,” said ACLU representative Richard Judkins in his statement. “We would request that you would continue to do your responsibility and supervise the implementation of this ordinance.”
Council Member Scott Gruendl agreed the ordinance should stay under review and suggested an annual report. He then added he was pleased with the use of the ordinance by the police and was less apprehensive about it than he was in the past.
Council Member Andy Holcombe, after mentioning that he is a member of the ACLU, spoke in response to some of the points made by the citizens.
In his statement, Holcombe suggested the City Council avoid focusing on the possible misuse of force on one occasion and instead recognize the ordinance’s effectiveness in preventing the use of force.
The discussion ended with no plans to act on reforming or removing the ordinance, but with a general consensus that it should be kept under regular review.
Anthony Siino can be reached at
asiino@theorion.com
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