Panhandling is becoming a problem in Soddy-Daisy, officials say, and city commissioners have unanimously voted to prohibit the practice in certain areas of the city.
“We actually had some issues here in town with some aggressive panhandling, and the police department had to be called on multiple occasions,” City Manager Burt Johnson said at Thursday’s commission meeting. “We didn’t have anything in our code about it, so that’s why we did this.”
He said the incidents happened in the Walmart area and involved several different people.
The city ordinance defines panhandling as someone actively soliciting a donation of money or other item of value, but it does not prohibit passive solicitation such as playing music on a sidewalk, City Attorney Sam Elliott said at the meeting.
(READ MORE: Soddy-Daisy prohibits camping on city property)
“If somebody’s sitting there and they’ve got their hand out, then they’re OK, but if they get aggressive, then that’s in violation of this ordinance,” he said.
Panhandling is going up to people and harassing them, touching them and similar actions, Johnson said, in response to a citizen’s question of whether the ordinance applies to people holding signs asking for help.
The ordinance does not apply to people soliciting donations for nonprofits such as churches or athletic teams, Mayor Steve Everett said.
“We’ve had some aggressive panhandling; we’ve had some people backing up traffic,” Everett said. “That’s just not something that the citizens of Soddy-Daisy are going to want here in our town.”
The city also is adopting the state statute on aggressive panhandling, which has a separate definition that includes intentionally pursuing individuals being solicited without their consent by following them or blocking their vehicle or pathway, Elliott said.
(READ MORE: City of Chattanooga approves new panhandling rules)
“We’re just trying to keep people from being assaulted,” he said.
Aggressive panhandling is prohibited everywhere in the city, and panhandling, which is more broadly defined, is prohibited in targeted areas, including outside of restaurants and schools and on city sidewalks and right-of-ways, he said.
The goal is not to arrest anyone for panhandling but to give officers the ability to ask someone panhandling to leave an area, Johnson said after the meeting.
Police will handle violations of the panhandling ordinance in the same manner they handle violations to the ordinance passed last year prohibiting camping on city property, Everett said.
“I don’t think our police are going to kill a gnat with a sledgehammer,” he said. “I think they’re going to be kind and considerate to anybody that’s down on their luck.”
Commissioners will take a final vote on the ordinance during their meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 5 meeting at City Hall.
Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.