"Brother Can You Spare Me a Dime" - Policing Panhandlers in Lakeland

A recent Letter to the Editor in The Ledger addressed a problem with panhandlers on East Memorial Boulevard. Such nuisances create a lower quality of life in our community, for who wants to be accosted by these individuals when we are taking our families out for dinner.

I experienced this problem first hand myself while dining downtown several months ago. An individual who obviously just arrived in town via the most recent freight train or bus approached my wife and I looking for a handout. I promptly and assertively told him to leave us alone as such activity was not permitted in town. He then turned to another table just a few feet away where a repeat performance of his plea for assistance produced a $20 bill from the diner's wallet.

Asking for assistance is not a crime, but aggressive panhandling is a violation of a City Ordinance. We do respond to calls for service of this nature along East Memorial Boulevard when merchants request our assistance. We rely on getting calls from the public when panhandlers become aggressive or when merchants want an individual removed from their property. Our limited resources simply do not permit us to maintain a heavy presence in the area in hopes of preventing such incidents.

So how can we prevent future acts of aggressive panhandling? Let's start by understanding human nature. Panhandlers go where they know they can get a quick buck or two. It is a bit like hunting or fishing - you go where you have the greatest chance of succeeding. What is needed is for people to realize that your "gracious" act of giving money to someone who is panhandling is actually perpetuating the problem rather than making things better.

Stop giving money and the panhandlers move on.

The other aspect of this problem is linked to something we have blogged about repeatedly - how we deal with the homeless problem in Lakeland.

Many of the panhandlers on Memorial Boulevard are looking for places to sleep, food from restaurant dumpsters, and opportunities to beg for money. Our community simply does not have enough social services providers to meet the needs of the many homeless individuals who travel to Lakeland because we are known across the country for being so generous to anyone coming into town looking for a handout.

Problems such as homelessness and aggressive panhandling expose the deep social ills that we routinely expect to be solved with a quick call to the police. We will not arrest our way out of this problem - we need to continue as a community to find ways to deal with homelessness and the related problems of aggressive panhandling.

Something to think about the next time you see someone giving money to a panhandler...

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Comments

[Vince]

I moved from Lakeland to St Petersburg in June 07. Aggressive panhandling is a MAJOR problem over here. Homeless actually took up "residence" in front of city hall...and were allowed to do so until just recently

[std]

So then, what about baseball teams that stand at intersections that pass around a ball cap, begging for cash? This would be considered the same degradation in quality of life right? Officers should run them off too. Tell them to go wash cars or sell lemonade to raise cash.