Nacogdoches City Council
on Tuesday adopted a written policy for dealing with problematic people at city-owned properties such as parks, the library and other public buildings.
Until Tuesday, the city’s usual method of dealing with people causing issues on public property included banning them via a criminal trespass warning.
“What we have is essentially an unwritten
policy,” City Attorney Jerry Baker told council members Tuesday. “We’re trying to put something in effect that would be enforceable.”
The policy, approved unanimously on Tuesday, is the result of a collaboration among the city, county attorney’s office and police department after learning convictions for trespassing on public property being overturned. In one case, the conviction of a man reportedly
trespassing in a City of Henderson park was overturned after the court of appeals found the city’s unwritten policy violates due process.
“Because (the policy) was unwritten, the determination made by officers was arbitrary,” Baker said.
The approved policy spells out that a defendant “is given the
opportunity to cease whatever they are doing — a noise violation for example,” he said. “If they refuse, a criminal trespass can be given at the time.”
The opportunity to cease may be skipped if the offense is more serious, according to the policy, which also allows the person in question to seek an administrative review if they feels the trespass warning wasn’t warranted.
“(The written policy) ensures we are able to ban people from city property if we have to,” assistant police chief Bill Kennedy said. “It also makes sure that those people who are taxpayers — and have a legal right to those properties that they technically own as a taxpayer — not only have a way to make sure due process of getting the warning is correct but to be able to go to the city manager’s office and have a way of
having that warning lifted if we have made a wrong decision.”