The problem of vagrants, panhandlers and the chronically intoxicated wandering through downtown or city parks is not unique to Rapid City.

Other cities have experienced similar issues caused by small groups of people who are usually homeless and may have problems with substance abuse and/or mental health.

Iowa City, Iowa

Pretending to be drunk in Iowa City will earn you a trip to the pokey just as fast as the real thing. Unlike South Dakota, Iowa is one of a few states that still has a public intoxication law on the books, and it gives Iowa City another tool in removing intoxicated people from its downtown and parks.

Police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said Iowa City's public intoxication law doesn't discriminate between actual drunkenness and pretending to be drunk. The law prohibits being intoxicated or simulating intoxication publicly, and there is no blood-alcohol level tied to it.

Leah Cohen, owner of Bo-James, a restaurant and bar in downtown Iowa City, said the three-block pedestrian mall area tends to be a prime gathering place for vagrants.

Cohen said for a number of years, the city has been working on a plan to create a mix of generations in its downtown, with family-oriented events, high-end housing attractive to retired professionals and things for students to do.

Conflicts and complaints from visitors and business owners led the city to implement new ordinances regulating panhandling, she said, that prohibit panhandling or loitering within a set proximity to a building entrance and prevent people from selling items on the street without a permit.

Cohen feels Iowa City's efforts have been effective, though panhandling and vagrancy will never entirely go away.

"You just have to find ordinances that work for your area."

Missoula, Mont.

Rod Austin, director of operations for Missoula's downtown business improvement district, said cities used to put vagrants and panhandlers in the back of a squad car, drive them to the county line and tell them to not come back.

"These days, that's not the way to approach it," he said.

Missoula formed a panhandling working group to address concerns about panhandling and public intoxication. Austin said people were using downtown as a bathroom and bedroom.

The working group is close to recommending a stronger ordinance designed to curb aggressive panhandling, Austin said, but it's also started to talk about a broader scope of issues including vagrants, public intoxication and homelessness.

Similar to recent events in Rapid City, efforts to curb intoxicated people and panhandlers started with business owners in Missoula going to city hall to ask for help.

That group is now continuing the efforts started in an earlier campaign called, "Real Change, not Spare Change," that was intended to educate the public about what happens to money given to panhandlers.

More ordinances may be on the horizon. Austin says he intends to push for a rule prohibiting sitting or lying down during certain times of day to prevent people lying down in front of stores, and the community has started talking about a diversion program that would give people an option of going through a treatment program instead of going to jail.

Madison, Wis.

Madison's downtown area, State Street, runs between the Capitol and the university campus, home to high-end condos, a major new arts center and the types of restaurants and shops Rapid City talks of attracting.

Students, state employees, tourists and businesses all mix in an area that also is home to one of the city's main homeless shelters.

The proximity makes keeping the peace challenging, said Joel DeSpain, civilian public information officer for the Madison police department. He said Madison has tried innovative things to work with its population of transients and vagrants.

When a person is arrested in the State Street district for any violation including panhandling, a circuit court can decide, as a condition of bail, to ban them from the district. A person who makes the ban list can be arrested again if police see them downtown again.

Madison also uses neighborhood police officers who walk or ride bikes. Those officers get to know the transient population and can respond quickly to complaints and check who is on the ban list.

Chanda Dolsen, State Street and Capitol Square neighborhood police officer, said those efforts help the city direct resources to "true problems."

"We look at how we can provide resources outside of writing tickets or taking people to jail," she said. Madison police work closely with service providers such as United Way and The Salvation Army to refer people in need. University of Wisconsin-Madison law school students help police identify who the transients are and determine what resources it would take to help them help themselves.

Lincoln, Neb.

In Lincoln, intoxicated people determined to be a danger to themselves or others are taken into protective custody at Cornhusker Place detox center and can't leave until they perform a clean breath test or are picked up by someone who also must be completely free of alcohol.

Katie Flood, public information officer for Lincoln police department, said those who are drunk but still functioning are told to go somewhere else.

"So many of them drink all day and have a really high tolerance. And they're functioning even though they're at a .324, or whatever. If they're not stumbling down the sidewalk creating a disturbance, we just let them be," she said.

Panhandling is different. People can be arrested for violating Lincoln's panhandling ordinances. Four bike officers patrol downtown and are a visible deterrent. But Flood said enforcement efforts have been helped by officers going to the local soup kitchens to engage people in conversation.

"They get to know them on a personal level, so when they are taking them to detox, they're more willing to go," she said.

Within the past few years, Lincoln's downtown association has partnered with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on a marketing campaign aimed at discouraging university students from giving money to panhandlers directly. Instead, the campaign advocates the public to give money to charitable and service organizations who are working on poverty and homelessness issues, according to Todd Ogden, the downtown association's marketing director.

The next step for Lincoln, Ogden said, will be to come up with some specific solutions to address the issues that lead people to homelessness, panhandling and substance abuse.

Title: Public intoxication Date: May 18th, 2009 The Rapid City Journal takes a closer look at the issue of public intoxication - what causes it, how does it affect the community and what can be done? VIEW PRESENTATION »