Pressing charges against someone who is refusing to leave a business when asked and is exhibiting signs of anger or mental illness may be the best way to get help for that person.

“A minor misdemeanor charge can get someone the help they need,” Patrick Fudally of the Port Townsend Police Department told two dozen business owners and employees during a Dec. 15 talk on personal safety sponsored by the Port Townsend Main Street Program.

“If you ask someone to leave, and they refuse, they broke the law,” Fudally said.

Fudally said people with minor offenses go through a mental health court, and that process often helps them access mental health services.

His comments came at the end of an hourlong talk aimed at educating store owners and employees about personal safety tips and how to de-escalate tense situations. Business owners acknowledge they have experienced such situations with people who appear to be homeless, and some who appear to have mental health issues.

Fudally told business owners that an email chain alerting neighboring businesses of people to keep an eye on is a good idea. One business owner said she and a few other owners on her block have started a phone tree, by which they alert others nearby if they feel someone might be threatening them or refusing to leave when asked.

“Phone trees are good. Email chains are better. People can be added or taken off in seconds,” Fudally said.

Empowering employees to ask people to leave and call the police if they feel threatened also is a good idea, the officer said.

“Empower your employees to take decisive action,” he said. If a customer is in an area where they shouldn't be, make it OK for the employee to tell the customer to leave the area or call police for help.

If an employee or owner sees someone shoplifting or feels a need to report someone behaving oddly, they should try to get as much information as possible that could be useful to police in identifying the suspect.

Shoes, for example, often have more distinguishing features than clothing, he said.

It's common to get a call from someone describing a “man in his mid-20s wearing jeans and a hoodie,” Fudally said. If the man has a red scarf or green shoelaces or a rip in his jeans, that kind of information can distinguish the suspect from others.

DE-ESCALATION

As for de-escalating situations, Fudally said there are physical things to do, and there are good things to say, as well as unwise things to say.

In the face of aggression, he said, it's important to breathe evenly and be calm, keep your hands still, give the person personal space and don't touch them. Move slowly and have eye contact, but do not stare at them, he said. He also suggested standing at an angle, called a “bladed stance,” with one foot slightly in front of the other and to the side. That allows you to maintain balance should someone push you; it also is a less threatening stance than facing the person square on.

As for what to say, Fudally said, “Hollywood is destroying a lot of things we're doing” when it comes to how to talk to someone in distress. He joked that the good guy always tells the person in trouble to calm down, and it works like magic. “Has the term 'calm down' ever really worked?” Fudally asked.

Instead, Fudally suggested that, if possible, ask the person's name to establish a connection, then ask open-ended questions such as “Is there anything you are looking for?”

“All an angry person is trying to do is to communicate,” Fudally said. “If you listen, a lot of times, it will calm them down.”

He also said there is a difference between showing empathy and showing sympathy.

As an example, he recalled a high-speed chase that ended at Jefferson Healthcare hospital. The driver, a man, was taking his sick child and wife to the hospital because of an emergency. Fudally helped the woman and child get into the emergency room, then turned to the driver to chat with him about his driving. A second officer arrived and then a third officer came on the scene. The first two officers were not parents. The third officer was a father. Fudally said there was a three-way disagreement among the officers in the parking lot because the third officer showed sympathy, but not empathy, for the speeder.

Fudally pointed out that all of that happened before he received training on de-escalating situations.

OPEN 911 CALLS

One woman said she didn't have time to engage customers in long conversations or talk them down, as Fudally had suggested.

Fudally said it's OK to call 911 on a land line and drop the phone down on a counter, then continue to talk, offering information to the dispatcher about where you are. Engage the person in a conversation, saying things like “Our policy at [business name] is not to allow that” and “I've asked you to leave.”

The dispatcher would listen to that and pick up hints. Officers respond to such open 911 calls, although perhaps not as quickly as they would to an emergency domestic violence in progress, he said. So when in trouble, call 911.

Fudally also noted that the Port Townsend Police Department continues to be short-staffed.

Police Chief Michael Evans recently said that he still has five officers missing from duty – two are at an academy, one is in training and two are in the background phase of being hiring. That means other officers are working overtime while the department strives to get back up to full staff.

Fudally currently is working six days a week; he has been promoted to detective.

WHERE TO TURN

One business owner asked Fudally where to send people if they say they are just coming into the shop to stay warm, as a number of people do in the winter.

The COAST Winter Shelter, housed downtown, at the end of Water Street in the basement of the American Legion Hall, is closed between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.

Fudally said the Safeway grocery store has a lenient policy about people being in the area of the Starbucks coffee shop within, and noted that it's not uncommon for people to get to Port Townsend late at night and not realize there is no bus to take them on to Kitsap County. So they stay in Safeway.

The Boiler Room downtown also is a safe place, but that nonprofit also has turned away people who became belligerent or drunk, he said.

“The biggest problem we have is when they get drunk or are belligerent,” Fudally said.

A representative of Don's Pharmacy said she was having difficulty with people at the pharmacy’s soda fountain buying food for other people, who then linger for hours.

Fudally suggested that businesses that want to control who is at their establishment should post signs that limit the time patrons can spend at a table, for example. When one person is allowed to linger beyond a reasonable time, the word gets out and others follow suit, he said.

Fudally also suggested that businesses consider putting up video cameras, which he said are now relatively cheap.

WINTER SHELTER

As for the homeless community contributing to problems downtown, Fudally said the COAST Winter Shelter gets new people every year who don't know the community.

“Every year we get an influx from the shelter and we have to deal with the ones who want to stay” when the shelter closes, Fudally said.

Fudally said a new group of homeless people had been hanging out in a park between Penny Saver Mart and the Food Co-op, and fights had been breaking out between the homeless newcomers and homeless old-timers.

Calls about that have dropped since police adopted a “zero tolerance” policy about open containers in public after dusk. Officers started ticketing anyone there who had an open container of alcohol in public, and complaints have since dropped, he said.

“At the end of the day, most of these guys don't want to go to jail,” Fudally said.