News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville City Council will consider an ordinance Thursday that would ban panhandling and asking for donations in city streets.
City Manager Mike Davidson said the ordinance would prevent people from walking into the street and asking for donations.
“For some time now, we’ve been looking and considering the idea of how to try to address the issue of people soliciting donations out in the street,” Davidson said. “You can seek donations along the sidewalk if you want to, but you can’t stand along the street and go out in traffic. It poses a hazard for traffic as well as pedestrians as they go out into the roadways.”
Councilman Eric Walker voiced his concerns with the proposed ordinance changes, saying the change could result in unnecessary stops by police
“With it not having a lot of teeth in it, now we’re kind of giving one more reason for people to be stopped just for passing coffee out the car window, or whatever it is,” Walker said. “I don’t know if it’s effective in what we’re trying to do.”
Walker said the ordinance could potentially harm people who are in actual need of help.
“How do we give someone help if we can’t hand them a Subway card out the window or if we can’t give them a list of places they can go?” Walker asked. “I sure don’t want to see somebody get in trouble because you’re handing them a sandwich out the window.”
Davidson said the ordinance would only cite people soliciting or seeking donations in the roadway and not the donors.
“If people are in need of assistance and they contact us or they contact the police department, we have those resources that we provide to them, those lists of where you can go to try to get help,” Davidson said. “Officers themselves have, on occasion when it’s late at night, they’ve taken up money themselves to try to help folks just for that particular night.”
Mayor Ricky Shelton said many concerned citizens have messaged him about aggressive panhandling within the city.
“There is a group of people that are absolutely working this as a moneymaking situation, especially out on the interstate,” Shelton said. “I want to help people too, but we also have to have something on the books or we can’t do anything for the people that we know are professionally panhandling.”
Council will vote on the ordinance during Thursday’s meeting beginning at 5:30 p.m.
