Public Safety Action Delayed at City Council

The council voted 4-4 Tuesday night (Mayor Quan made the tie-breaking vote) to send the Loitering, Curfew and Gang Injunction measures on last night’s Council agenda to the Public Safety Committee which next meets Tuesday October 25 at 5:30 pm. Those who wanted to act on the 3 measures last night were De La Fuente, Reid, Schaaf and Kernighan. Those urging delay and further study were Brooks, Kaplan, Brunner and Nadel.

The Shot Spotter contract award was part of the consent calendar and passed unanimously.

The three hours of discussion at Council last night mainly centered around the idea that Curfews and Loitering (also Injunctions) do not work and people holding this view insisted the facts supported their side. Proponents pointed to their own studies and noted that many other cities’ have these type of laws. In fact it was said California state law has loitering prohibitions and that a city ordinance would simply give police the chance to write a ticket instead of making an arrest which is the only action the state law allows.

The Chamber and a broad coalition of business groups is supporting all these Public Safety measures and more (see our letter here).