About a dozen Manchester residents expressed their disapproval of the way the city has handled unhoused residents during public comment at Tuesday’s Board of Mayor and Alderman meeting.
This follows an Aug. 12 incident where Manchester resident Caitlyn Reilly filmed police officers saying they would start a "manhunt" for an unhoused person in an alley. She spoke about what she saw and demanded the resignation of the chief and the firing of the officers involved.
“They turned policing into a cruel game, setting an alarming precedent for our community,” she told the board. “The altercation I witnessed was not an isolated incident, but a symptom of a larger issue and a culture that needs to change. The city of Manchester and its people deserve better.”
Ahead of the meeting, Reilly joined about 20 protesters that held signs, waved flags and chanted slogans against the police. Homelessness has been a big focus for the city since the mayor and board of aldermen voted to ban camping in city streets and parks earlier this summer, following a Supreme Court decision that allows cities to do that.
In response to protestors, Police Chief Allen Aldenberg said that the department is finishing an investigation into the officers’ conduct. The investigation is scheduled to arrive on his desk next week, and he said he plans to make a decision about disciplinary action based on the results.
“These are human beings that work in a very difficult profession. And sometimes good people make mistakes,” he said. “I think a lot of times people look at law enforcement to solve the homelessness issue, and I think it's just not going to happen –it's a holistic approach.”
The issue is personal for Lisa Whitehead. She attended the meeting to speak about her experience working for the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office in downtown Manchester. She said she walks the park by the courthouse three times a day and said she has seen “horrible” things there.
Even though she is proud to be a part of law enforcement, she asked the board to change their approach in dealing with unhoused people. She called for the council to allocate more resources to helping unhoused people and instruct the police to not harass them.
“You [Board of Mayor and Aldermen] have taken homeless people who are destitute. They are desperate. They are hungry. They are sick. And you have turned them into criminals,” she said during the meeting. “They need to not be harassed by the police. That is not the police's job. The police's job is to protect the people, not to harass the people.”
Later that night, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously approved a budget transfer of $163,000 of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act originally allocated to paying an Emergency Management Coordinator at the fire department. The money is meant to supplement the total $300,000 cost of the ShotSpotter technology from July 2024 to June 2025, according to board documents.
The board also unanimously approved funding to create a position for a full-time grant coordinator at the police department. The department currently receives $10 million in grant funds and creating a position would allow the department to receive more, according to board documents.
