Constitutional Law

Tenn. police mulling plans to enforce anti-gang law

By By The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nashville police are trying to protect a relatively new law that allows them to ban gang members from certain areas.

In response to growing concerns that gangs were disrupting the safety and quality of life of Tennessee?s citizens, the state enacted a nuisance law in 2009 that would allow police to file civil suits against gang members. Those suits would ban known gang members from hanging out in certain areas, patronizing certain businesses or associating with certain people.

Violating those civil orders could then become a criminal charge.

But police said recent flooding, a major racketeering case and, in what has been the biggest factor, concerns about legal challenges, have delayed efforts to file civil injunctions against gang members.

?We don?t want to be the ones to go out and do a half-attempt at it and ruin it,? Lt. Gordon Howey, head of Metro police?s Gang Unit, told The Tennessean. ?There?s going to be a lot of scrutiny.?

Howey said his unit has consulted with other police departments so they can bulletproof cases from legal challenges.

?We just want to make sure that we have all of our information, all the documentation that we?re going to need,? he said. ?We want to make sure that those identified as gang members are actually gang members in those areas committing crimes.?

The injunctions are highly touted in areas such as West Palm Beach, Fla., and Los Angeles, where police credit them for cleaning up entire neighborhoods.

?These guys are getting sick of getting thrown in jail for standing on the street corner selling dope,? said Agent Gene Picerno, gang and organized crime coordinator with the West Palm Beach Police Department. ?We?ve cleaned up a whole bunch of areas where now the folks can come out, sit under the tree and not worry about getting shot at.?

However, Nashville defense attorney David Raybin said the challenge for police will be to narrowly tailor each case so that constitutional rights of due process and the right to assemble are not violated.

?What you want to be careful of is that the net is so wide that?s it?s impossible to comply with the law,? Raybin said. ?I applaud the police department for using novel techniques to do crime control. But I think that the courts are going to want to have a very narrow use of this.?

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on September 06, 2010 (boomark / email).