Ability to expel repeat offenders in added area along Ashland Street seen as useful in tamping down rise in ‘negative behaviors’ in the area

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news 

The establishment of an enhanced law enforcement area in the south Ashland business corridor would be a “step in the right direction,” for the area’s ongoing problem with certain “negative behaviors,” Ashland Police Chief Tighe O’Meara told Ashland.news in an interview Friday. 

In a phone call that included Deputy City Attorney Carmel Zahran, O’Meara said Friday if council votes to approve the ELEA in its second reading — planned for the Tuesday council business meeting — it would create a replication of the ELEA that has been downtown for 12 years. 

“What we’re trying to do is take that same framework with some slight possible modifications and apply it to the Ashland Street business corridor just as it has been applied to the downtown area. … The intent behind this is to get chronic negative behavior people out of a focal part of the city,” he said. 

Under the current ELEA ordinance, an offender given at least three citations for qualifying violations within a 60 day period could face expulsion if those violations led to convictions. After three qualifying convictions, the city attorney’s office can file a motion with the municipal court and the judge can then order the expulsion, O’Meara said.

The expulsion is temporary, Zahran said, as expulsion orders are no less than three months and not more than one year. Those who are expelled would be able to reenter the area for necessities such as visiting one’s doctor. 

Asked how officers will know someone with an expulsion order is entering the ELEA for the right reasons, O’Meara said officers are familiar with using this particular law enforcement tool. 

Qualifying violations for expulsion are a short list of offenses such as an open container in public, drinking in public and smoking marijuana in public, he said. 

But in some cases offenders can be causing more mischief than public intoxication. In the south Ashland area this year, one particular individual who O’Meara said would remain nameless has already been arrested 13 times for infractions such as trespassing and theft. 

“Right now, all the officers can do is wait until he steals something, again, and arrest him again, and he’s going to be released from the county jail because that’s the situation again and he’s going to be back in the area again,” he said. 

O’Meara said the situation in the south side of Ashland reminded him of downtown prior to the establishment of its ELEA — the same offenders returning to the same areas to commit similar offenses because they know the end result is a fine. 

“You can just ignore it and there’s no further sanction. You just keep on getting ticket, ticket, ticket, keep on getting convicted, it keeps getting turned over to collections,” O’Meara said. 

Asked how Ashland police officers are thinking about the potential ELEA, O’Meara said he believes they are hopeful. Cycles of repeated attempted enforcement with no positive effect elicits a sense of hopelessness. 

“It (the ELEA) gives us a tool with those chronic offenders to say ‘OK now, because of your repeated negative behavior, you’re expelled from the area, and if you come back we’re just going to arrest you for basically trespassing and lodge you in the county jail,’” he said. 

In the instance of the offender with 13 enforcement incidents, the new ELEA would allow officers to obtain an expulsion, then have the power to arrest him if he is seen inside the ELEA, O’Meara said. The ELEA is a  tool that makes police work not only reactive, as it usually is, but also proactive. Those with a courtroom verified pattern of unwillingness to follow social rules can be proactively removed from an area before they can commit further offenses based on their previous behavior. 

The ELEA has substantive due process throughout the steps from offense to expulsion, Zahran said. Offenders have the right to go to trial on all offenses, though some would be more akin to fighting a speeding ticket in court than a fuller court of law. Those facing potential expulsion can appeal to a judge, have exceptions in their personal expulsion order and have other rights throughout the process, such as the right to counsel. Those the ELEA are intended for are largely those who fail to appear for trial and are not responding to law enforcement the way most people do. 

Most people, she said, upon being told to stop partying in the street by an officer, or given a ticket for such a transgression, will stop their behavior, pay their fine and otherwise amend themselves. 

“The ELEA is a useful tool for people who are not abiding by code violations that the community really cares about. If law enforcement doesn’t have the ELEA tool, then the violations are effectively meaningless for someone who chooses not to abide by them to begin with,” Zahran said. 

Asked about the origins of the new south-side ELEA ordinance, O’Meara reached back to last year. He did not want to make a direct link between the use of the 2200 Ashland St. property and criminal activity, but the conversation surrounding that property co-occurred with and became part of a larger conversation about a discernible increase in negative behavior in the area. The creation of an ELEA for South Ashland was one of several law enforcement strategies discussed including the implementation of a new police presence in the area. 

The ELEA ordinance with additional modifications as presented during the Nov. 19 council meeting was “initiated by the police department and the legal department with (City Manager) Sabrina (Cotta)’s support,” O’Meara said. 

O’Meara took responsibility for the “mistep” of those modifications to the ordinance as presented both during the Friday call with Ashland.news and at the Dec. 2 study session as previously reported by Ashland.news. He also said Friday that those modifications, which would have given officers the power to expel individuals without judicial input, have been permanently disregarded. 

New suggested modifications for the “overarching concept of the ELEA” will be very different and come before council again for further consideration in February, O’Meara said. 

A map of the new ELEA was included with meeting materials during the Dec. 3 council business meeting. 

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].

Related stories:

Ashland City Council to vote on second reading of Enhanced Law Enforcement Area ordinance (Dec. 15, 2024)

Ashland City Council approves expulsion area for south side of town along Ashland Street (Dec. 6, 2024)

Ashland City Council balks at potential expulsion zone changes (Nov. 22, 2024)