This past week, the Bremerton City Council passed an ordinance in regards to “Unlawful Solicitation” otherwise known as panhandling.

The summary of the agenda bill reads:

“City Council desires to add provisions to the Bremerton Municipal Code to regulate solicitation at automated teller machines, bus stops, and within certain designated roadways and make other related changes.”

This ordinance comes quickly on the back of another related but voluntary ban that limits certain types of alcohol from being sold between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. in what is being called an Alcohol Impact Zone.

There are times where I fully support community legislated efforts that will most likely curb or potentially infringe on personal rights.

I support them when they have made data-driven and credible argument about long-term community safety concerns and/or that increased legislation is needed to stop critical public safety services from being repetitively tied up, diverted or drained.

The blighted property ordinance was one of those legislated solutions that the city enacted which I did support.

I do not support the recent decision on the panhandling, how it is being implemented and the silo mentality behind it.

Currently, the city code continues to allow for the expansion or new inclusion of nonprofit social services in prime centrally located retail locations downtown.

Examples are the new homeless shelter planned by the Kitsap Rescue Mission on Sixth Street and the extensive expansion of the Salvation Army that is currently underway.

Bremerton is steadily working towards being the largest social service provider hub on the Kitsap Peninsula.

This proposal should have been tabled until after the completion of new or expanded social services that are being put in place for the people now being targeted by Bremerton’s chief of police and various members of the city council.

Why not give the growing community safety net a chance to open all the way up and start working as it should?

This is yet another rush to judgment while the left and right hands of our local city leaders are trying to fight for the protectionism of their individual silos.

Panhandling, in Bremerton, has not yet met the “smell test” of an immediate community safety concern that would allow for the suppression of individual rights and the choice to live and speak freely.

Even the police department has admitted that classification issues on these types of calls can be, and typically are, construed in a variety of ways.

It appears that there were only nine official police calls in an entire year specifically about panhandling.

Frankly, that is not a good enough reason for such an ordinance to have passed.

Colleen Smidt is a longtime resident of the Bremerton area and writes weekly about political and community issues. Email her at colleensmidt@gmail.com.