Within Morgantown city limits, the responsibility of maintaining order is in the hands of the Morgantown Police Department.
Over the past few years, MPD has found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place trying to find a balance between protecting constitutional rights and ensuring community safety, with one of the main topics of conversation being the growing houseless community.
There are basically two sides of the issue – people who think police are doing too much and people who think they are not doing enough, MPD Chief Eric Powell said.
“I think those two extremes are sort of colliding here and we’re stuck in the middle trying to parse out what’s real, what’s not, what’s perceived, what’s actually happening – and it’s tough,” said Powell. “We get criticism from both sides.”
The side not often seen or heard, he said, is the perception of the MPD officers themselves, so I spent some time riding along with MPD officers on both day shift and overnight.
Walking down High Street one morning during a foot patrol with PFC Matt Judy, a 16-year veteran of the department, and MPD social worker Kelly Rice, it was clear they knew many of the people frequenting the sidewalks of the downtown area and their individual stories. Rice continuously offered help finding housing or rehab services but received little interest from those she spoke with.
Judy explained that officers cannot force people to move from private property, including sidewalk areas owned by businesses, unless asked by the owner. They can suggest the people leave but cannot force them.
That’s not to say actual laws were not being enforced.
At one point, Judy stopped to cite one gentleman drinking from an open alcohol container.
What should have been a short interaction writing a citation ended up taking the officer off the street for over an hour, after he learned the man had a capias warrant for not appearing in court for a third offense shoplifting charge. He then had to be taken to the Monongalia County Justice Center to appear before a Magistrate Judge.
Judy said it was not uncommon for officers to be taken off the street for extended periods of time, whether it be for court proceedings or taking an individual to receive medical treatment.
Medical treatment can take an officer out of commission for hours as they cannot leave anyone who in their custody. These situations impact an already short-staffed department.
After court, Judy and I patrolled the downtown area in his cruiser and checked on various areas the department has been monitoring, like the Locust Avenue/Dallas Street area off Richwood Avenue where unoccupied houses are often broken into. This is something PFC Chad Shade and I did during a night shift as well.
At the time, there was not a whole lot of activity in that area, so we moved on to a reported homeless encampment in Sabraton on the trail behind Kroger.
When we arrived, there were two gentleman who appeared to be cleaning up their items. Judy and an assisting officer spoke with the men who claimed they had found a place to live and were moving on. The officers left them to it.
When camps have been established, the area must be posted for two weeks to give those staying there time to move. After that, the city, not the police, remove the items.
Powell said the department’s official policy on how to handle encampments is currently in the revision process.
A night shift with PFC Shade began by covering Morgantown City Court security – another side effect of low staffing.
Once that ended, we hit the street on foot patrol all around the downtown area. Much like Judy, Shade knew many of the downtown frequenters by name.
As night fell, Shade and I were joined by three other officers to patrol the area under the Walnut Street Bridge, a place where they often see a lot of drug use at night.
While patrolling the area, we happened upon a fire in a small encampment that was growing out of control.
While calling for the fire department, three of the officers ran to the area to make sure no one was injured, unconscious, or suffering an overdose. Shade and I checked the surrounding area and spoke with two women who identified an individual they saw running away. They didn’t see him actually light the fire, however.
Throughout the evening, several additional small fires were set in that area and a potential suspect was briefly detained but had to be released due to lack of evidence for felony arson charges.
Shade said it was possible that circumstantial evidence collected could stand for an eventual malicious burning charge.
In a later conversation with Powell and Deputy Chief Ruehmer, they pointed out that arrests are not made as often as people think.
“There seems to be this notion that police interaction results in arrests,” Powell said. “When people call, or don’t call, the mindset is ‘well, that person is going to get arrested now, that guy’s going to go to jail now.’
“It’s not a huge percentage of times when we’re involved in incidents that somebody ends up getting arrested – it’s a very small percentage of the time.”
While I spent less than 12 total hours with Judy and Shade – less time than just one of their shifts – the only arrest I saw was the gentleman with a capias warrant, who was released immediately following his court hearing.
Even during a few traffic stops for minor violations with Shade, everyone remained respectful, and no tickets were issued.
Both officers expressed it was not their goal or intention to arrest people unless absolutely necessary and are frustrated by the current national narrative surrounding law enforcement.
Ruehmer said he believes one of the problems is the language being used to describe the problems here in Morgantown.
“Everything seems to be colored or viewed through the lens of homelessness. So, there’s this outcry that you can’t criminalize homelessness or you’re not doing anything about homelessness because people are camping in the woods or whatever it may be,” he said.
“The overriding problem isn’t homelessness, it’s drug addiction and it’s the criminality that accompanies that – breaking into buildings, stealing things to sell for drugs, if it’s tearing through garbage – that’s not a homeless issue, it’s a disorder issue, it’s a criminality issue.”
Powell said they do address those issues when they have the opportunity but another issue they are facing is the way incidents are being reported – or rather aren’t – leaving them playing catch up.
“There’s this disconnect between what is actually reported to us and what people are saying is going on,” he explained. “Nine times out of 10, I’ll hear about an incident or some encounter the same way the rest of the world does, by it being announced on some platform, and it’s something that was never reported to us to begin with. So, the frustration I have is how are we supposed to take care of issues when we don’t even know they happen?”
“And reporting it in a timely manner, in real time so we can take appropriate action as it’s occurring,” Ruehmer added.
Powell said even if he could send 10 officers to walk around downtown all day, which is unrealistic, he is not sure whether that presence would even affect anything because they are limited in what they can take action on.
The chief and deputy chief made it clear police are not involved in politics or policymaking and simply follow the rules given to them.
“If a person is standing around in a public place, we’re not inclined to make them leave,” Powell said. “Everybody has their rights. We can’t pick and choose who has rights.”
The chief said he realizes the downtown area isn’t perfect, but in general, the rate of reported criminal activity, and type of activity, hasn’t changed much over the last three years in Morgantown.
At the same time, they said they recognize the concern from the community and are taking steps to address those things and hopefully mitigate them as best they can.
