A message about panhandling in Fort Collins:

Thank you for reaching out to us, and I appreciate your observations regarding panhandling/loitering issues throughout the city. As you noted, addressing the issue of panhandling is difficult, and has become even more so nationwide due to recent court decisions. While we are unable to issue citations for the act of panhandling, we continue to approach the problem from other angles by addressing the underlying crimes that occur when applicable, such as harassment (for overly aggressive actions), disturbing the peace, and standing in a roadway median (which is illegal under traffic code for safety reasons, and not related to the action of panhandling). Unfortunately, ordinances prohibiting loitering have also faced legal challenges throughout the country, and are not a viable option.

Police officers need to be careful about ‘moving on’ people who are not violating the law. While we can develop relationships and influence people’s behavior by obtaining their cooperation, we cannot use police authority to address legal behavior based on our perception of a person’s situation or housing status. We will continue to do our best to address problem behaviors, and we (and many other cities) are continuing to evaluate constitutional ways to enforce disruptive and unsafe behaviors.

I assure you that our department is applying the tools we have available in a professional and compassionate manner to address this problem. FCPS Officers write an average of 100 citations per month to transient/homeless people, and we take 20-30 of them to jail each month for more serious criminal violations. You may have heard Sheriff Smith expressing his concern about the approximately 25% of the Larimer County Jail population that are classified as homeless or transient. I think these numbers indicate that the enforcement piece is being done when appropriate for the situation. Officers working with this population regularly hear that one of the reasons people come here is the existence of good services for the homeless. Our department is encouraged by the great relationships we have with our service providers. We are committed to working together to find the balance between services provided to people in need and the behavioral challenges you and others are concerned about.

Please call us direct when you have concerns, and we will do what we can to help. Our officers are working hard on this every day.

Mike Trombley
Deputy Chief, Patrol Division