The city of Gainesville is moving forward with updates to its loitering and disorderly conduct ordinances to bring them closer in line with state law.
The new loitering law provides more instruction on what defines loitering as well as more instruction for what officers should do when responding to such a call.
Carol Martin, Gainesville Police chief, said at Thursday morning's Gainesvile city council work session that the new law will be clearer for both law enforcement and citizens.
Under the new code, loitering is defined as a person "in a place at a time or manner not usual for law-abiding individuals under circumstances that warrant a justifiable and reasonable alarm or immediate concern for safety of persons or property in the vicinity."
For officers, this is warranted if a person tries to flee or hide when law enforcement approaches, or if the suspect tries to hide when police arrive.
An update will also be coming to the city's disorderly conduct ordinance, adding some language for clarification and deleting other sections that have since become outdated.
"There were some things we took out that are applicable in other ordinances or state laws that we did not need in there," said Martin.
Council opted to put both items on the consent agenda for their next voting session June 21, where they will face final approval.
