Southold Town Board officially bans loitering
The Southold Town Board unanimously approved adding “loitering” to an existing town law banning peddlers, solicitors and transient retail merchants from local streets at its Dec. 3 regular meeting.
The updated law defines loitering as “obstructing, molesting or interfering with any person lawfully upon the street, sidewalk, park or other public place” or “remaining in a public place for the purpose of annoying or harassing any person,” in the same areas.
Public places are described as any location where the public is welcome, including in front of or adjacent to businesses or parking lots “not owned by … the person charged” with violating the new statute.
The amended law also prohibits public urination and defecation other than within restroom facilities in the town, which wasn’t specifically illegal under the previous law, although public lewdness and exposure are long-standing violations of the New York State Penal Code.
Penalties for violating the loitering law include fines ranging from $250 to $2,500 for first offenses and $500 to $5,000 for subsequent violations.
Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said the amendment was made to establish code consistency between Southold Town and Greenport Village and help the police department address public concerns. “It’s just another tool in the tool box for the police in case there is a problem, that they can address it in this fashion,” Mr. Krupski said of the Southold law.
The Greenport Village Board passed its own anti-loitering law in August after reports of intimidation and harassment of residents became commonplace, particularly in the commercial district near Adams Street.
A documented spike in emergency calls in Greenport overwhelmed local first responders, as previously reported in The Suffolk Times. The narrow passageway that runs between Front and Adams streets was sometimes referred to by community members as “overdose alley.”
During a public hearing about the village law on Aug. 22, local business owners, including Blue Duck Bakery Cafe owner Nancy Kouris, described scattered liquor bottles, public urination and slumbering vagrants in the alley behind her store.
Southold Police Chief Steve Grattan told the Village Board that the law would give the police department “an added tool to address this issue.” Greenport Fire Department assistant chief David Nyce, a former Greenport mayor, encouraged the board to adopt the legislation to “give the police department something to work with to dissuade the behavior.”
