New Orleans police can arrest people for lying on sidewalks. They’re ramping up enforcement.

People lying on public sidewalks in New Orleans may face jail time as police ramp up enforcement of a long-standing ordinance prohibiting the practice.

The shift comes as the New Orleans Police Department struggles to tackle homelessness in the French Quarter, 8th District captain Samuel Palumbo said at a neighborhood meeting on Monday.

“People just don’t feel safe when people are blocking that area,” Palumbo told commissioners of the French Quarter Management District at a Security and Enforcement Committee meeting, noting that there have been “repeated offenses of just lying on the public sidewalk.”…

Story continues

TRENDING NOW

LATEST LOCAL NEWS