Last summer, Spokane enacted a controversial law that made being in city parks after hours a misdemeanor enforceable with arrest.
The tougher penalties were put in place after the city's police department and parks department raised concerns about an uptick in violent and disruptive behavior caused by large groups hanging out in parks after hours.
Police Capt. Thomas Hendren, who helped create the law, said at the time that tougher penalties were necessary because people often ignored officer's' requests to leave parks because they knew there wouldn't be any consequences.
But many other people had concerns about the proposed law.
Breean Beggs, who was the City Council president at the time, worried that the law could be unconstitutional and could lead to biased enforcement and be used to justify an arrest that otherwise wouldn't have happened. Others worried about what would happen to early morning dog walkers or people who travel through parks on their way home from a late-night shift.
Police said the goal wasn't to arrest a bunch of people, and that they would give warnings and use discretion. Hendren told skeptical council members that the goal of the law was deterrence — not to "stack up a bunch of stats."
After significant debate, the law passed in July 2023 with a narrow 4-3 vote. The law applies to Riverfront Park, which is closed from midnight to 6 am, and all other city parks, which are closed from 10 pm to 6 am. After a period of outreach and education, police began enforcing the law in September.
Six months after it passed, the law doesn't appear to have prompted a sweeping crackdown on late-night strollers.
On Monday, police Maj. David Singley told council members that only three people have been cited under the law. The low number of citations, Singley said, is intentional.
"Once the ordinance was implemented, our officers really focused on public education, making contact, giving warnings," Singly said.
In summer 2022, Spokane parks saw three after-hours shootings that resulted in nine victims struck by gunfire. One 16-year-old victim was shot twice — once in June at Dwight Merkel Sports Complex in the Northwest Neighborhood, and then again two months later in West Central's Dutch Jake's Park.
Singley said city parks haven't had any shootings with a victim since the law was passed, and that he thinks the new law is a "large part of the reason."
Singley said the law also seems to have prompted a decrease in other types of late-night crime and disorder in parks, though he didn't have specific data available.
Council President Betsy Wilkerson said she was glad to see the drop in shootings but expressed skepticism about the correlation with other types of crime.
"I'm glad anecdotally you made the correlation, but that's a big leap," Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson said more specific data is necessary to see if the law is working as intended, or if it's acting as a "barrier to others in the community who want to be in the park after hours."
An Inlander records request revealed just two examples of people being cited for being in parks after hours. (It's unclear why the third citation Singley mentioned wasn't included.)
The first arrest to take place under the new law happened in October.
Around 6:30 am, half an hour after Shadle Park opened, a man walking his dog told an officer on patrol that he had been startled by a man sleeping along the pathway in the park.
The officer found the man sleeping in a sleeping bag and asked him to leave.
An Inlander records request revealed that just two people have been arrested under the law.
tweet this
"In my experience when the police approach a person violating park rules and offer for them to leave [versus] being arrested they almost always leave right away," the officer wrote in his report. "I figured I could just warn him quickly and he would leave."
The man did not leave. After asking several more times, the officer decided to detain him.
In his report, the officer said the man refused to give his hands when asked, and began resisting and rolling around in his sleeping bag while the officer tried to handcuff him. The struggle pushed the handcuff tightly against the man's wrist bone, causing it to bleed.
The man was eventually handcuffed and taken to jail, where a nurse cleaned the cuts on his wrists. He was ordered to appear in court for resisting arrest.
In his report, the officer said he intended to cite the man for violating the city's law against sleeping in parks. But the charge wasn't showing up in the department's computer system, so the officer chose the closest charge, which was being in parks after hours.
The second arrest happened in December, shortly before 4 am, when an officer noticed a man hanging out in East Central's Chief Garry Park.
The officer asked the man why he was in the park that late, and the 27-year-old replied that he was charging his phone.
The officer told the man that the park was closed and that he needed to identify himself. The man repeatedly gave a name that didn't show up in the system, so the officer decided to arrest him for trespassing in the park after hours and providing false information.
In his report, the officer said the man began to "violently resist" and tried to run away while being escorted to the patrol car.
"No, no, I don't want to go to jail," the suspect yelled, according to the report.
Other officers showed up to help. One brought a "WRAP" — a restraint device used by police to immobilize uncooperative suspects by binding their arms and legs. The City Council approved the department's purchase of 40 such devices for $76,300 last May.
After restraining the man with the WRAP, police took him to Spokane County Jail. He was given a $536 infraction for being in the park after hours, and an order to appear in court for resisting arrest and giving a false name to police. ♦
