Ordinance offers solutions

The new city ordinance concerning disorderly conduct raises a question of Green River’s influx of transients and other disturbances, which the ordinance now can deal with.

“It’s not a huge problem, but we have a pretty heavy influx of transients in the summer months,” Green River Police Chief Chris Steffen said. “We deal with that problem every summer.”

Steffen says it’s been an issue for quite a long time now in Green River. It hasn’t gotten any worse, but it hasn’t gotten any better either, and continues every year. Officers are often called to businesses to deal with or asked to remove transients who may be causing a disturbance for the business owners or patrons.

The new city ordinance grants the Green River officers an option to deal with people who are causing a disturbance, including residents and travelers alike. The ordinance is not specifically just aimed toward dealing with transients.

Steffen gives the example of when the officers are called to a location such as a bar fight where the person or people are not under the influence, the officers are faced with a dilemma. A public intoxication violation may not be appropriate for the situation. If the officers have a need to take action, they have no ability to, Steffen said, unless the ordinance is passed. There are still two more readings to go through to solidify the ordinance.

“I’m not in favor of adding more ordinances, but this again is something lacking in an aspect,” Steffen said. “This one draft ordinance kind of corrects everything.”