In an effort to better address the concerns of shopkeepers and visitors in downtown La Grange regarding loitering and disorderly conduct by young adults and other individuals, the Village Board of Trustees Monday night unanimously adopted an ordinance amending the Village Code with improved definitions of the offenses.
The ordinance also contains a provision described as a "mini-due process" procedure, requiring a police officer to first engage in a conversation with anyone suspected of loitering or disorderly conduct. Based on the outcome of that conversation, a police officer will make a determination whether or not a violation has occurred before deciding on an appropriate course of action.
Village Attorney Mark Burkland said that by requiring the conversation, in which an individual questioned by a police officer would have an opportunity to explain his or her reasons for their presence and behavior, the constitutional rights of the individual are protected.
In the ordinance, "loitering" is defined as being "in a place, at a time, or in a manner not usual for law-abiding individuals under circumstances that warrant alarm for the safety of persons or property in the vicinity."
"If there is a group of six or eight or ten teenagers who have come downtown to buy something at Starbucks and then walk across the street and sit together to converse around the fountain or on the benches, that isn't even loitering in the first place," Burkland said.
But if that same group obstructs the public sidewalk or acts in a way that would be perceived as threatening by passersby, then a police officer can respond and initiate a "mini-due process" conversation, Burkland said.
If, on the basis of that conversation, the police officer orders the group to move on and it fails to do so, Burkland said, "that constitutes the offense, which would be citable under the ordinance. So it is a multi-step process."