Proposed ordinances would help people who need treatment

On Aug. 5, the city council will be voting on new ordinances proposed by LCPD Chief Jeremy Story.  These ordinances are aimed at the issues we are all too familiar with on the streets of Las Cruces: people stealing shopping carts from businesses, aggressively panhandling in parking lots and creating road hazards by asking for money at busy intersections. I know I’m not the only mother who has been followed in parking lots by people demanding money from me and my children. It’s gotten to the point where I won’t even go to certain stores at night anymore because I fear for our safety.

Some people are concerned that the new ordinances will “criminalize” homelessness and target the most vulnerable in our community, yet these folks are failing to look at the bigger picture. It is already illegal to steal shopping carts and to be in possession of stolen property.  Many of the most vulnerable in our community cannot take steps to get themselves into a better situation. Their mental health problems and drug addiction have trapped them into a cycle of self-destruction.

If you look closely at the new ordinances being proposed, you will find that they actually have the potential to finally help those people living on the streets. Instead of just imposing jail time or fines that cannot be paid (like the laws that are already in effect), the new ordinances provide a better alternative because they increase our ability to get people into treatment for drug addiction and mental health illnesses. The new ordinances will allow the new consequence of "community service" in the form of treatment. 

One person who might be helped by these ordinances is a repeat offender with over 75 arrests per public records, mostly related to trespassing. I've seen this person wandering the streets of Las Cruces and she clearly needs help.  I can only imagine what the criminal element does to her on the streets at night given her serious inability to care for herself. She desperately needs help in the form of treatment in a safe place.

I hope the city council will have the courage to try something new with these ordinances so that repeat offenders like this one will finally get the treatment they need. It’s time to move beyond the politicized talking points. These ordinances are a creative solution for the benefit of the offenders themselves as well as the broader community. 

Sarah Smith is Vice Chair of the Coalition of Conservatives in Action in Las Cruces as well as co-leader for the New Mexico Freedoms Alliance statewide coalition.