Spokane City Council increases hours when being in parks is an arrestable offense

The Spokane City Council on Monday added an extra hour to the timeframe during which someone can be arrested for being in city parks.

The Spokane City Council voted in June to make being in parks after hours a misdemeanor enforceable with an arrest after parks and police officials insisted that greater nighttime penalties were necessary to combat rising crime.

The law was controversial and passed on a narrow 4-3 vote, with one major concession: while Riverfront Park is closed from midnight to 6 a.m. and all others from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., the council had initially agreed to decrease the hours when police would be authorized to make an arrest. Police were limited to making arrests between midnight and 5 a.m. in Riverfront and 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. in all other parks.

The city charter bestows the authority to change park hours to the Park Board, not the council, but the council had argued that they were controlling the enforcement of penalties and not the hours of closures themselves. To prevent confusion, the City Council in its June ordinance had requested that the Park Board change the hours of closure to line up with the hours of enforcement.

The Park Board refused, arguing the costs of changing signs with hours of operation would be prohibitive and dismissing concerns that police could abuse their discretion.

“I don’t know who would dispatch someone to say, ‘I saw a jogger, could you please come arrest him?’ ” Park Board President Bob Anderson said at the board’s July 13 meeting. “I mean, I don’t see that happening … And I don’t see our police acting in that fashion.”

Though police officials have said officers would use proper discretion and provide warnings before making arrests, many have expressed concerns that the law’s subjective enforcement could be used to discriminate. Several, including KJ January, a Black woman, testified to the City Council that they had previously felt racially profiled by the police after being in the parks after hours.

The City Council on Monday voted 4-2 to increase the hours when someone could be arrested for being in city parks. Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson and Councilman Zack Zappone, who voted against the initial law two months ago, voted in opposition Monday night.