How Bangor and Brewer differ of their approaches to homelessness
When Bangor and Brewer police encounter somebody who’s homeless and in want of companies, the 2 departments’ legislation enforcement insurance policies practically mirror each other, however the sources every metropolis has to supply individuals in want couldn’t be extra completely different.
Police encouraging these in must entry acceptable assist grew to become frequent because the unhoused inhabitants in Bangor grew all through the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bangor and Brewer police departments additionally adopted insurance policies within the spring of 2022, as required by state legislation, that require officers to direct unhoused individuals accused of committing low-level crimes to assist somewhat than charging them.
Bangor has struggled to appropriately handle its homelessness disaster and take away massive encampments, which at one level required the help of a federal catastrophe reduction crew. However the concern seemingly hasn’t unfold to neighboring Brewer. A better take a look at the variations in bodily sources and within the homelessness insurance policies for every police division might clarify why people who find themselves homeless in Bangor don’t typically stroll throughout the river.
The informational playing cards that inform individuals how you can entry sources present the variations within the amount and number of companies to which Bangor and Brewer police can direct individuals. These sources embrace companies from an in a single day shelter to psychological well being remedy.
The 2 useful resource playing cards Brewer officers distribute maintain contact info for largely statewide choices and useful resource hotlines. Of the 4 native organizations listed that may present habit restoration remedy and hurt discount supplies, just one — the Bangor Space Restoration Community — is situated in Brewer. The remaining three organizations are in Bangor.
Brewer police don’t deliver unhoused individuals in Brewer to the Bangor Space Homeless Shelter or Hope Home, Brewer police Chief Jason Moffitt stated.
The useful resource card Bangor police distribute, nonetheless, lists 29 organizations, most of that are in Bangor, that may provide individuals something from a scorching bathe to detox remedy. That checklist contains what every group gives, the handle and phone info for these organizations and their hours of operation.
The Bangor Police Division additionally has a group useful resource officer who works with unhoused individuals who might need assistance or to be addressed in the event that they’re doing one thing unlawful, like tenting on personal property.
“We attempt to at all times push sources earlier than leaping to a felony cost, however we nonetheless want to vary a conduct, which can be tenting in a enterprise alcove,” stated Elizabeth Ashe, the Bangor Police Division’s group useful resource officer. “[Officers] are going to be sooner to provide you a useful resource card than a summons. We will’t arrest our approach out of homelessness, so police aren’t going to repair it on our personal.”
Bangor additionally has the newly fashioned Bangor Group Motion Crew, a group disaster response crew tasked with addressing conditions that don’t require a police response. The crew is commonly known as to help the various Bangor residents who’re homeless, fighting psychological well being issues, substance use dysfunction or different challenges.
The crew is completely separate from the police, and its members don’t have any energy to arrest. Cops don’t accompany the crew when it’s dispatched, however they are often known as if a state of affairs escalates.
Each Bangor and Brewer police departments have a homelessness disaster protocol coverage that instructs officers to direct unhoused individuals to acceptable sources after they’re accused of committing sure low-level crimes. The insurance policies, required by Maine legislation, are designed to divert people who find themselves homeless away from the felony justice system.
The insurance policies for each departments direct officers to ask if somebody is unhoused. If they’re and are accused of committing one of many low-level offenses listed within the coverage, officers ought to direct individuals towards sources somewhat than issuing a tremendous or summons for the crime.
The low-level offenses named within the cities’ insurance policies are trespassing, disorderly conduct, urinating in public, possession of a scheduled drug and public consuming.
Brewer’s coverage, nonetheless, features a line that acknowledges “the necessity for enforcement motion could also be wanted” in sure circumstances. Brewer’s model of addressing those that are homeless, coupled with the dearth of companies accessible, might play a think about deterring individuals from crossing the river.
“In the event that they’re open to and wish assist and also you throw them a lifeline, we’ll transfer mountains to get them there,” Brewer Deputy Chief Chris Martin stated. “But when they create hate and discontent, we’ll maintain them accountable.”
A Could 2023 report from Group Options, a nonprofit that works to finish homelessness, particulars how punitive policing of unhoused individuals is pricey for communities and infrequently worsens the issue somewhat than lowering it.
That’s acknowledged within the state legislation requiring all Maine legislation enforcement companies to develop insurance policies guiding police to not cost unhoused individuals for sure low-level vagrancy crimes unhoused individuals generally commit.
This legislation is a marked step towards decriminalizing homelessness, stated Charley Willison, co-author of the report and an assistant public well being professor at Cornell College. However any insurance policies the place police are concerned, equivalent to Bangor and Brewer’s, or that depend on police to carry out outreach work introduces the potential for punitive motion.
“Outreach to individuals who’re experiencing unsheltered homelessness would possibly concurrently end in gives of connections to social companies together with individuals being cited for illegal tenting or sleeping in public,” the report stated. “The dangers of punitive enforcement are additional compounded if this particular person is, say, experiencing a behavioral well being disaster.”
Brewer’s doc additionally has sections outlining instances during which an individual wouldn’t be eligible for diversion. That standards vary from if somebody has an lively arrest warrant to if officers consider the unhoused individual dedicated a home violence offense.
Bangor’s coverage doesn’t embrace such language, however Bangor police spokesperson Sgt. Jason McAmbley stated officers will maintain individuals who battle with homelessness accountable for extra severe crimes, equivalent to assault, no matter their housing state of affairs.
It’s uncommon, nonetheless, for Bangor police to reply to somebody who’s unhoused as a result of they dedicated a bigger crime, McAmbley stated.
“Once we take care of somebody who’s homeless, it’s often as a result of they’re homeless,” McAmbley stated. “There’s no level in them being caught into the felony justice system. It simply perpetuates the cycle that we’re attempting to interrupt.”
Getting into the felony justice system and having a file can also make it way more tough for unhoused individuals to realize housing sooner or later, McAmbley stated.
Martin and Moffitt agreed police ought to stability compassion and accountability when coping with somebody who dedicated against the law and can also be unhoused or grappling with substance use dysfunction. Nonetheless, additionally they consider that spending time in a residential remedy program or in jail with drug remedy companies, if there’s house for them, “offers them a reset, an opportunity to get clear and entry to applications.”
“There’s this concept that one way or the other a brief incarceration, like a sentence in a county jail, goes to smash somebody’s life, however we’ve had individuals inform us we saved their lives,” Moffitt stated.
