Shooting up at the library, sleeping at the Common: Is this the new summer normal?

It's not unusual to have homeless or transient folk bedding down for the night in one of the Common's port-o-potties. (Rochester Voice photo)

ROCHESTER - On Monday afternoon Rochester Police got a call for a female shoplifter at Walgreens. A manager at the store told police the female was known to them and had left without paying for some $50 worth of stuff.

Five minutes earlier came a more disturbing call, from the nearby Rochester Public Library.

The caller, a library employee, said a bunch of people had been hanging out in the parking lot between the church and library much of the day, adding they'd seen one of them shoot up in the morning outside the Children's Room window. The caller said they "wanted them moved along."

And something happening more often now with warmer weather is many homeless and transient folk have taken to sleeping on the Common, many on the bandstand and benches, others in the handicap-accessible port-o-potty near Arthur's Market.

Rochester Police Chief Paul Toussaint said calls for service from the area between the Commons and the library, from welfare checks to suspicious individuals, to loitering, to drug use command a daunting amount or police resources every day of the week.

On Tuesday Rochester Police press liaison Capt. Todd Pinkham noted around midmorning they'd already gotten a half dozen calls to the area.

For Toussaint, who has made "quality of life" issues a mantra for his department, the calls are frustrating, especially the incident at the library.

"Would you want to take your daughter to the library knowing that?" he asked on Thursday.

Toussaint said his department and officers are frustrated that they can't "clean up the downtown" like the public wants, but adds that bail reform has stymied their effort.

"The old strategy was that a small group commit vast amount of crimes, and are frequently wanted, so we would make an arrest and depending on the arraignment date, they'd be off the street for an amount of time," he said. "That would make an impact, and the more you put in jail the less crime you have.

"Now they get out on PR (personal recognizance). So the public has a reasonable expectation that we can clean up the downtown, and that will solve the problem, but very few go to jail.

"It's frustrating, more so for the officers, trying to make an impact, who run into roadblocks."

Even a drug possession charge rarely leads to incarceration, he said, adding, "With a drug possession charge, they get PR bail and are back on the street before the officer's done their paperwork."

And it's not unusual to have an officer arrest someone on a bench warrant and have them back on the street on PR just as fast.

"Many of these people have no intention of showing up for their arraignment," and the bench warrants just pile up, Toussaint said.

Toussaint said that while police are unable to put the pinch on the rising calls for service, it's not for lack of trying.

Pinkham said the area from the First Congregational Church - where SOS Recovery Services is located - to the Common and including areas of Charles, Congress and South Main Street is the most heavily patrolled area of the city and already commands a disproportionate percentage of police resources.

But what may disturb the chief the most is the continued use of the library by homeless and transient folk who often use this jewel of Rochester to hang out, sleep, charge phones, or sometimes even shoot up drugs.

"The library has been a hot spot of activity for a couple of years," Toussaint said. "It goes back to the homeless, but it makes people who used the library uncomfortable. Sometimes they do things they're not supposed to do. A bunch of them have been trespassed from the library, which starts a cycle. You make an arrest for trespassing, they get bailed and they're back."

He said the men and women of his department are doing the best they can but they're frustrated.

"We want to make an impact on the quality of life," he said. "The men and women in this department are trying to do this every day, and they don't want the public to think we don't' care."

Toussaint is hopeful his department can make a dent in many of the city's quality of life issues, but right now it is hamstrung with staffing issues, down some 14 officers.

Getting to full staff is imperative he said, adding that when they do he wants to construct a new four-officer plainclothes unit that could help out with issues at the library, the Common or any neighborhood that has a suspected drug house or other concern.

In the meantime, they'll do the best they can, he said, even if it often means just getting a group of homeless and/or transient folk to leave one particular place to go to another.

With the knowledge that a bench warrant arrest is back on the street in hours he noted, "We end up moving a lot of people along."