Common Council tables bill to protect homeless, adopts bill concerning officer-involved shootings

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The South Bend Common Council tabled and passed multiple bills late on June 24.

One resolution that was passed would enter South Bend, Mishawaka, and Saint Joseph County police into an agreement to mutually investigate officer-involved shootings. 

It comes less than a week since a police chase ended in South Bend with a suspect dead. 

This Saturday also marks one year since the deadly police standoff involving Dante Kittrell last summer. 

Kittrell was having a mental health crisis, waving a replica gun near Coquillard Elementary. The shooting was ruled justified. 

July 24's resolution calls for an interlocal agreement between South Bend Police, Mishawaka Police, and the County Board of Commissioners for the mutual investigation of officer-involved shootings.  

Council members say it’s a sensitive topic that requires special attention in order to get facts straight from an outside perspective.  

“That particular event needs special attention,” said At-Large Common Councilwoman Lori Hamann. “As we saw with the car chase, they cross districts, they go from South Bend into Mishawaka out into the county, so it’s important that we have this agreement so they can address the facts and conditions, and we can work together on these issues.”  

Hamann said some of the finer details of the bill, like next steps forward, are up to the Board of Commissioners. 

The Common Council then tabled some bills, including one that would add the homeless as a protected population. 

The bill would have amended the City’s Human Rights Ordinance to give new protections to the city’s nearly 600 homeless people. 

In the committee meeting, there was back and forth discussion that led to ultimately tabling the bill altogether.  

Hamann said the mayor is one who is not in favor of the bill, and that there were some concerns with facts she presented about the stereotypes the homeless may face when seeking employment. Hamann states that is the point of the bill.  

“I think we have a greater responsibility to this community,” Hamann said. “We are elected by them, we are to represent them and we are to pass legislation that they want passed. And that is not what happened tonight.”  

She said she will be doing even more work and research to bring to the council regarding the bill, and it should be back on the table within a few months.