Cracking Down on Panhandling

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Story Published: Feb 1, 2010 at 9:04 PM PDT

By Stacy Lilienthal

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YAKIMA --- Yakima is cracking down on panhandlers, and has employed an unusual source to help.

Maintenance workers have been helping fight this growing trend downtown. Now more eyes are there to see when beggers get aggressive. Police are being called anytime a panhandler touches, blocks or rudely gestures to someone on the street.

"You don't see the people holding signs like you do on 40th downtown. These are more people that are walking up and asking people for money and stuff like that," CDY Maintenance and Safety Program Manager, Matt Klaus told Action News.

Tuesday night the council will begin looking at other city's efforts to control the problem. Some of those ideas could include tougher restrictions on when, where and how someone can beg for food or money.

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