Pestering Panhandlers: Lake View Police Say When to Call the Cops

When 33-year-old Lindsay Speckan moved from her small Kentucky town to Chicago a year ago, she had no idea she'd feel so infringed upon by the city's panhandlers.

Now a Lincoln Park resident, she says she didn't know how to react the first time a panhandler walked up to the window of her vehicle while she was stopped at Armitage Avenue, just after exiting Interstate 94.

"I work in Northbrook and I pass them every day on my commute," she said last month in Uptown. "I'm used to it now, I guess; as used to it as you can be."

She was among about 75 people at a Sept. 24 seminar for those in the Chicago Police Department's 19th District, which includes all of Lake View, where officials talked about the Constitutional laws protecting panhandling and the city's ordinance regulating it. Coordinators encouraged attendees to call the cops if they're ever in a situation where that ordinance is violated. Often it is, they said.

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"As you all know, illegal panhandling is a huge problem in our community," Ald. Harry Osterman (48th) said, before the meeting began. "We need a plan of how to deal with unacceptable panhandling in our communities, which is, not to demonize them, but basically say, 'You can't panhandle here. We will find other ways to get you resources and food, but you can't be here.'"

In 2004, the Chicago City Council passed the "Aggressive Panhandling ordinance." It was amended in 2009 to include additional provisions, but generally, prohibits panhandlers from asking for money within 10 feet of a bus stop or ATM, on public transportation or in a vehicle which is parked or stopped in a public street or alley, said Sandra Brode, an attorney who works in the Chicago Police Department's Office of Legal Affairs. The act is also forbidden at gas stations or while people are waiting in line for a venue, she said.

• Read more on the controversey behind patrons at Panera Cares here.

"Why, you ask?" Brode said, adding that panhandling is protected under the First Amendment. "Because now it's beginning to infringe on someone else's Constitutional rights. … Panhandling is not illegal. It exists in every country in the world and it is not, in some places, considered to be a bad livelihood. ... You must also realize that people who are panhandling aren't always people who are living under bridges."

The "flower children" in the 1970s made quite a bit of money panhandling, she noted, launching into the definition of the act. It's characterized, she says, as any solicitation made in person, on a street, public place or public park as a request for money or some kind of other gratuity.

The city's ordinance doesn't keep anyone from standing, sitting, performing music, singing or holding a sign asking for a donation without any vocal request.

It does make the following panhandling acts illegal:

• Panhandling in any public transportation vehicle or facility, such as a stop on the L.
• Panhandling in a sidewalk cafe.
• Panhandling within 10 feet in any direction of the entrance to a bank or currency exchange.
• Touching a person without his or her consent.
• Asking for a donation while people are standing in line to enter an establishment.
• Using a gesture or other communication that would cause a reasonable person to be fearful.
• Two or more people panhandling together.

Within Lincoln Park, there aren't any habitual "trouble spots" for panhandling, said Chicago Police Sgt. Beth Giltmier, CAPS sergeant for the 19th Police District. But it does exist, often in high-traffic areas, like those surrounding DePaul University.

"It's fairly consistent," she said. "Some folks have means and other folks panhandle. … Occasionally we do get reports (of illegal panhandling). Sometimes, it's panhandler specific."

In those cases, police will address the situation with the specific person. Those violating regulations may be issued an Administrative Notice of Ordinance Violation, known as an ANOV, which comes with a $50 fine for first and second offenses in a 12-month period and a $100 fine for the third or more offense in that same time frame.

In other instances, a person can be arrested.

"The offense is not panhandling," Brode said. "The offense is something else. Unless they're violating one of those enumerated things I mentioned, it's not illegal."

Possible offenses include disorderly conduct, obstructing traffic, congregating on a bridge/viaduct, not having a charitable permit when required or trespassing. 

"The panhandling ordinance does not ban panhandling, it merely sets limitations upon it," Brode stressed. "You can panhandle all you want, as long as you do it according to the appropriate guidelines. It has to be passive."

Giltmier said authorities have found that panhandling is a stepping stone to strong-armed robberies.

"If we enforce these regulations, where necessary, we can cut down on that," she said. "I don't think (the rules) are well publicized. People need to make themselves aware of them." 

Another panhandling seminar within the 19th District is in the works for mid-November, Giltmier said. The location has yet to be announced but coordinators said it will likely be on Belmont Avenue in Lake View.

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