AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A police video has put Kentucky's so-called street camping ban in the spotlight. Kentucky is among a few states and many cities to pass laws aimed at taking homeless people out of public spaces. Sylvia Goodman of Kentucky Public Radio reports on a recent confrontation between police and a pregnant woman which showed how the ban is being enforced.
SYLVIA GOODMAN, BYLINE: A police lieutenant, the head of Louisville's Downtown Area Patrol, approaches a pregnant woman in late September. She's standing next to a bare mattress strewn with blankets beneath an overpass in downtown Louisville. As Lieutenant Caleb Stewart comes closer, she tells him she's in labor. She says her water just broke and she needs an ambulance.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I keep leaking, and I don't know why.
GOODMAN: She says her partner is trying to find a phone to call an ambulance. Stewart calls for one himself. As she gathers her things and heads for the street, he yells at her that she's being detained for unlawfully camping. Stewart begins taking down her name and information. He's issuing her a citation.
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CALEB STEWART: Ma'am, come over here right now and stand over here - right over here now.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: You don't have to holler.
STEWART: Get out of the street.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: You don't have to holler at me. You don't have to push me. I'm coming up here.
STEWART: Come on - out of the street.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: You don't have to push me. I'm coming over.
STEWART: Stay right here. I have EMS coming.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: OK, but you don't have to holler, and you don't have to push me. I haven't done anything to you.
GOODMAN: Stewart walks back to his car to write the citation as she waits by the street. He narrates to himself.
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STEWART: 'Cause I don't believe for 1 second this lady's going into labor, but I called EMS, asked for Code 3 just in case I'm wrong.
GOODMAN: As she sits on the ground, legs askew, he gives her the citation that she crumples up before walking to the ambulance. Kentucky Public Radio obtained Stewart's body camera footage through an open records request. The police department defended him, noting he called the ambulance. They said Stewart was not available for an interview, and they say the woman had declined shelter months prior. The woman's public defender, Ryan Dischinger, said she doesn't want to comment or be identified but supports sharing the video.
RYAN DISCHINGER: The reality for her and for anyone who's homeless in Kentucky is that they're constantly and unavoidably breaking this law. What she needed was help and compassion, and instead, she was met with violence.
GOODMAN: Dischinger says the woman and her child are doing well and have found shelter without assistance from the police or courts. The law took effect in July as part of an anti-crime bill called the Safer Kentucky Act. It makes it illegal to camp or sleep outside an undesignated public property like sidewalks or under overpasses. Court records show at least 40 people in Louisville have been charged and nearly two dozen have missed their court date and face arrest warrants. Supporters of the law say it is designed to push people to seek treatment. Here's the law's lead sponsor, state representative Jared Bahman, in April, describing how he expected police to enforce it.
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JARED BAUMAN: That law enforcement officer would help that person in any and every way possible to find shelter to the point where law enforcement officers in our state have paid for hotel rooms for homeless individuals.
GOODMAN: A first offense can carry a fine of up to $250. Subsequent offenses turn into misdemeanors, which can carry jail time. Several states, including Texas, Tennessee and Florida and more than 100 cities around the country, have adopted variations on these anti-camping laws. That's according to the Washington-based National Homelessness Law Center, which advocates for the rights of unhoused people. The group's communications director, Jesse Rabinowitz, says the video of a pregnant woman cited while in labor is an extreme example of what's happening across the country.
JESSE RABINOWITZ: This is what happened when you use police, jails, tickets and fines to solve homelessness. It doesn't help anybody.
GOODMAN: Homelessness has been on the rise in Louisville. Louisville's mayor, Craig Greenberg, talks about what the police video doesn't show.
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CRAIG GREENBERG: What you don't see are the thousands of hours that dedicated public servants are doing every day on the streets of Louisville to provide services and shelter to individuals in need.
GOODMAN: He points to a complex that will provide services and transitional housing that the city hopes to complete by the end of 2027. Meanwhile, people continue to be charged with unlawful camping unless they find shelter off the streets. For NPR News, I'm Sylvia Goodman in Louisville. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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