Police call for panhandling, shopping cart laws during special meeting

The Las Cruces Police Department on Monday proposed changes to the city code that would create new restrictions on panhandling and the use of shopping carts.  

A divided council gave the green light to bring the proposed ordinances forward for a future meeting. Councilors Becki Graham and Cassie McClure joined Mayor Eric Enriquez and Councilor Bill Mattiace in requesting the ordinances appear on the agenda. 

Councilors Yvonne Flores said she did not want to see the ordinances move forward. Councilors Johana Bencomo and Becky Corran did not indicate their support for bringing the changes forward, but did not speak against them either. 

Police Chief Jeremy Story presented the changes. He described them as part of a holistic response. However, several people spoke out against the changes, including a representative from a civil rights group, an advocate for the rights of the unhoused and a homeless man who spoke to the Bulletin during the meeting. 

It’s unclear when the ordinance changes could be brought to a vote. Enriquez said factors such as the summer special legislative session could delay the matter.

Proposed ordinances

First, Story presented potential changes to the city’s existing ordinance on solicitation. The current order is unenforceable after a federal court found a similar ordinance unconstitutional in 2018. As Story characterized it, the update would narrow the focus and remove unconstitutional language. 

On public property, Story said instances of physical contact, intimidation, threats, blocking a vehicle, verbal barrages or not yielding when someone declines a solicitation would be illegal. Story noted that many of these instances already qualify as forms of assault or battery. On private property, Story said if the owner, tenant or other lawful occupant asks the person not to solicit, then they can’t solicit.

Additionally, the new ordinance would make solicitation in the roadway and solicitation that prevents someone from using the road illegal. Soliciting from the sidewalk—so long as the person isn’t in the road or blocking traffic—would still be legal, Story said. 

The council would have to pass changes to two city codes to change this. 

The shopping cart ordinance would enforce restrictions on businesses that provide customers with carts, such as compelling them to submit plans for how they plan to keep their carts, efforts to recover them and steps they’ll take to inform customers they can’t take them. 

“Abandoned shopping carts in the city can potentially hazard the health and safety of the public, interfere with pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and create a public nuisance,” Story said, adding that the visible carts create warped perceptions about crime and homelessness. “They ultimately make our current problems seem much worse.”

Businesses could become exempt by ensuring carts can’t be removed from store grounds. Failure to comply with the ordinance could threaten the business's ability to legally operate in city limits. 

The ordinance would also levy fines between $100 and $500 against people found using the carts. Story said a judge could order the person into mental health treatment instead of setting a fine, but could not make the crime an arrestable offense.

“If the goal was enforcement, we could do that right now,” Story said. “But that’s not the goal. The goal is to have a holistic approach to try to make Las Cruces better.”

Council and public response

Flores, representing District 6, asked questions of Story establishing that when a municipal court fine goes unpaid, a bench warrant is issued. If someone has a bench warrant, a police officer is legally obliged to arrest that person. 

Bencomo, District 4, pointed out research that shows people who have been incarcerated are more likely to end up homeless. And, the research continues, homeless people are more likely to be incarcerated. Those two things create a negative reciprocation that over-punishes people without a place to live, she said.

Graham, District 3, said the proposal was complex. However, she said she would consider it since it was trying something new. Mattiace, District 2, described the approach as “very balanced.” 

Mayor Enriquez raised questions about whether there were enough drug and mental health treatment opportunities for people caught up in these law changes. 

A limited public comment section then followed the presentation. Most of the commenters supported the changes. Many of the supporters were members of “Businesses for a Safer Las Cruces,” an interest group comprised of business owners that sprung up following the killing of Jonah Hernandez in February.

Vic Villalobos, a business owner and organizer of Businesses for a Safer Las Cruces, said the council should support the changes because Story was supporting them. 

“I believe this is about trust. I can tell you I trust Chief Story. And that’s really what it comes down to,” Villalobos said. 

Daniel Williams, a policy advocate for the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the proposed solutions were not what was needed. 

“While we appreciate the chief’s attempt to take a holistic approach and his comment that these ordinances are not intended to criminalize homelessness, it is our deep conviction and concern that that will be the precise effect,” Williams said. 

Keith Cunningham, a homeless man who said he preferred to use the last name Triantos, said he saw the issue differently from many speakers at the meeting. 

“The homeless are getting a bad reputation,” he said. 

Triantos, who said he became homeless in 2020 when he was evicted following his mother and stepfather’s deaths, said most carts are not taken from stores but found on the street. He said he feared that these changes would create more instances of police encounters that ended with a homeless person injured and arrested, something he said he has experienced and was more acute in Las Cruces compared to surrounding areas like Mesilla or Doña Ana. 

When asked what he thought the council should do, Triantos said he wanted leniency regarding enforcement. He also suggested allowing people to keep their carts or for businesses to donate old carts to people in need.