ALLENTOWN — Although kids and teens who loiter in the borough will still be punished, an ordinance the Borough Council passed May 8 will ensure that the infractions will not remain as part of a permanent criminal record.
“We get complaints about kids hanging out,” Mayor Stuart Fierstein said after the meeting. “This was a request by the police, because the police have had frequent issues with loitering, and they felt uncomfortable with the alternative presented to them.”
Previously, when police in the borough received complaints of young people loitering on private property, their only choices were to order them to disperse or charge them with a crime under the state statute, he explained.
The problem with these two options is that sometimes a verbal warning is ineffectual, and treating such a relatively light offense as a crime is excessive, he said.
“When a minor gets charged, it goes to criminal court,” he said. “The criminal action … sticks with a minor.”
Fierstein said there are a multitude of ways in which such a charge could affect a minor in their later years, from getting a job to obtaining car insurance.
Council President Michael Schumacher agreed, adding that once an individual is charged for loitering under the state statute, judges and prosecutors are usually reluctant to drop the charge down to a lower offense.
“When the police are called or the police, when they’re on patrol, notice something is going on … it allows the officer to have the flexibility to use the local ordinance instead of branding kids with a criminal act,” Fierstein said.
Under the new local ordinance, consequences for loitering will depend on the situation. Parents or guardians will be notified, and infractions can result in anything from a verbal warning to a fine. If an individual accrues three loitering offenses, he or she will have to do community service.
“I think in the long term, it’s a better alternative,” Schumacher said. “I don’t expect that there will be a whole lot of summonses issued.”
Fierstein pointed out that loitering offenses are not limited to evening hours, and can occur well before the town’s 11 p.m. curfew for minors.
“The issue is not one of time of day,” he said. “People have complained during afterschool hours.”
In addition, although complaints of loitering have largely been in reference to young people, the ordinance also applies to adults, he said.