Super Bowl week will test recently strengthened Dallas panhandling ordinance

Super Bowl week will test recently strengthened Dallas panhandling ordinance

The potency of a newly strengthened Dallas ordinance prohibiting panhandling will be tested in the coming days as police beef up patrols before Super Bowl XLV.

Police Chief David Brown said there hasn’t been any specific push to combat panhandling leading up to the big game.

“Dallas has not increased any kind of efforts in that area,” he said. “We are doing an all-hazards approach. We are trying to treat our neighborhoods as a priority during the Super Bowl events, along with all the Super Bowl venues.”

But it’s not unusual for cities to strengthen panhandling laws ahead of major events. And with hundreds of Super Bowl activities being held in newly created “solicitation-free” zones, city officials said tougher enforcement of the policy could result from an increased police presence in those areas.

The City Council voted last month to expand the ordinance against panhandling by outlawing begging in four tourist-heavy spots: the downtown business district, Deep Ellum, Uptown and Victory Park. The measure, which went into effect Jan. 1, also added a fine of up to $500 for violations.

“Everybody is focusing on making as good of an impression as we can during the Super Bowl,” said Mayor Tom Leppert. “But the panhandling ordinance, it didn’t come in because of the Super Bowl. It came in because this is a long-term strategy of trying to make the downtown a better place to work and live.”

The panhandling crackdown is one of several efforts under way to clean up Dallas’ tourist hot spots.

On Wednesday morning, police relocated a homeless man from near the Dallas Convention Center, where the 19th annual NFL Experience will be held starting today.

Gary McClung, safety manager for The Bridge, said the man would probably return to the city’s homeless assistance center, where he had signed an agreement to permanently live.

Patrol officers said the area was the first of 10 locations they and a sanitation crew were dispatched to clean up. The sweep also targeted eyesores, such as trash and graffiti.

Homeless advocates, like Neil Donovan of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said such measures unfairly single out an already at-risk group and jeopardize the livelihood of many struggling to get by.

And while often effective in driving away panhandlers from specific locations, the policies also create an incomplete profile of the area, he said.

“Dallas has a lot to be proud of, but no one believes it’s perfect,” Donovan said. “Including people that are unhoused gives a truer picture of the community.”

City leaders dispute the notion that the ordinance is merely to impress tourists, and they have played down the connection to the Super Bowl.

But Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway readily acknowledged the benefit of having the stiffer policy in place as tens of thousands descend on Dallas.

“The message we are putting out is that panhandling in Dallas is prohibited,” said Caraway, chairman of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.

“What better time for us to get that message across than on a national stage?”

source: dallasnews.com