BURLINGTON, Vt. -
Burlington City Councilors debated a ‘No Trespassing' ordinance on Church Street at Monday night's meeting. After heavy discussion, the ordinance passed unanimously. The intent is to change behavior on Church Street and Burlington police are optimistic it can be done.
On Church Street in Burlington, you see all walks of life everyday and at any given time. It's a public space which means many behaviors are tolerated. But some are not, "Openly drinking and fighting or tumultuous behavior, disorderly conduct," said Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling.
Those actions will land you a trespassing citation. It's an ordinance, the police and church street marketplace feel will work. In fact, in past years a similar ordinance was put in place for the library and City Hall Park, and success, behaviors changed.
"They wanted to be able to frequent the area so they simply stopped the behavior, less fighting, less drinking," said Chief Schirling.
It's behaviors that have people like Mark Sherman concerned, "People don't want their kids around swearing and bad behavior."
However, swearing won't get someone a citation. Instead it's disorderly conduct, unlawful mischief, and possession of drugs or alcohol.
And while the intent is not to target a specific demographic, the police chief says the main goal is to, "Reduce the amount of disorder on the street, without actually having to level as many criminal charges and municipal tickets."
