NCJ Number
104562
Date Published
1988
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This guide profiles 'street people' and discusses why they can be a law enforcement problem, what the police can do, police collaboration with the social service system in dealing with such people, and the limits of such collaboration. A videotape accompanies the guide.
Abstract
Street people include the homeless, alcoholics, mentally ill persons, runaways, and persons and families who have experienced economic hard times. Street people can cause problems for police by camping in public places, panhandling, or trespassing. They often fight among themselves, shoplift, sell drugs, mug passerby, and break into buildings. Their very presence often hurts area business. Police power to arrest the homeless is limited by court rulings. Police may either deal with them through a strict enforcement policy or by giving them the option to receive social services. A number of cities have forged alliances between police and the social service system in dealing with the homeless. Philadelphia; Boston, Mass.; San Diego, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. These collaborative efforts are limited, however, by insufficient treatment facilities and shelters, the shabbiness of existing facilities, treatment limitations for alcoholics and the mentally ill, and some persons preference for living on the street. 6 references, discussion questions. See NCJ 104206 for videotape.