Hutchinson Police Chief Brice Burlie addressed the council about the ordinance of section 9.1 regarding the recommendation to add “disturbing the peace provisions to the ordinance.” Council approved the recommendation unanimously at a city council meeting on Monday, Dec. 3, 2024 CREDIT EMMIE BOESE
By Emmi Boese
The Hutchinson City Council approved an ordinance adding disturbing the peace provisions to the Hutchinson City Code at Monday night’s city council meeting,
Section 9.1 Disorderly Conduct of the Uniform Public Defense Code includes verbiage that states “noisy conduct.” City Attorney Paul Brown wrote a memorandum to City Manager Enrico Villegas recommending an ordinance to amend Article IV from “noisy conduct” to “offenses against the public peace.”
The memorandum from Brown mentions that after the case of City of Wichita vs Griffie 318 Kan. 510 (2024), the Kansas Supreme Court struck down that the language of “noisy conduct” is overly broad and in violation of the First Amendment. The memorandum can be found in the city council’s Dec. 3 agenda packet.
“Disturbing the peace will give law enforcement an opportunity to address some particular situations,” Brown said to the council. “Loud parties, loud stereos, musical instruments. Just some things that are causing a problem that they care about to address. This bridges that gap when the Supreme Court struck down that division of disorderly conduct, and in the past, that’s the part of disorderly conduct that we used to address those, and so it took it away. This will help restore that. It will help with our law enforcement officers being able to address these situations and it also provides some exemptions so that obvious things aren’t a violation. Emergency vehicles, alarm systems, aircraft or railroad…all of that. It’s a very sensible approach and will be very useful to our police department.”
Brown said Hutchinson Police Department (HPD) Chief of Police Brice Burlie brought the city’s attention to the language of “noisy conduct” in the city code.
Burlie told the council he recommended adding “peace provisions” to the ordinance” so officers in the HPD have something lawfully to act upon.
“When we do have individuals that are disturbing the peace, it allows us to enforce if you know we have loud parties, excessive noise such as bands in a garage that are playing at all times of the day,” Burlie said. “It will allow us to take action on those individuals if we can’t resolve it through negotiation between the neighbors and then try to come to a common agreement on what’s excessive and what’s not.”
The addition of the ordinance will not have established operating hours. Instead, it will act as a 24-hour ordinance. Therefore, according to city staff and council, it is more open-ended in addition to the specific verbiage addition.
Villegas said he has full trust in the HPD to carry out the addition of the noise level ordinance respectfully regarding human rights.
“The level of scrutiny they provide to themselves is far better than the level of scrutiny that I can provide,” Villegas said about the HPD.
City resident Quincey Baker expressed concern about the city’s ” open-ended ordinance.” He also stated that the city has done immense work regarding human relations.
“But having that power still allows for (the) historical reality of our law enforcement system that is built on racial profiling situations to be inflicted back in the city of Hutchinson,” Baker said. “We do not need any ordinances that allow open-ended power to our law enforcement system.”
Regarding other agenda items at Monday night’s city council meeting, the council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance authorizing general obligation bonds to pay the costs of certain improvements for City Hall and the Woodie Seat Freeway.
A motion to consider a charter ordinance designating the City of Hutchinson website as the official city newspaper to publish legal notices did not pass. The final vote was 3-2. A motion needs ⅔ votes to pass.
The next city council meeting is on Monday, Dec. 17 at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers at 125 E. Ave B. City council agendas and minutes are available at hutchgov.com.
