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Police urge council to revive ordinance‑review process to improve enforcement
Summary
The police department told the council many town ordinances lack elements needed for enforcement and recommended an ordinance‑review committee or staff liaison to bring the code into compliance with state citation systems and to train staff; the council agreed to schedule follow‑up meetings.
Mantua law‑enforcement representatives told the council on Nov. 20 that gaps in the town code are preventing effective enforcement and recommended an ordinance‑review process to fix deficiencies.
Speaker 6 (a police representative) said several ordinances on the town books lack essential elements — definitions, penalties and the required structure — which prevents officers from using them for citations. The speaker described a history of staff turnover among those who previously managed ordinance drafting and codification and said the court clerk must enter ordinances into the SMART system to enable citation issuance; that step has not been consistently completed.
The officer proposed scheduling an operations meeting with staff, the court clerk and council representatives to inventory ordinances, assign responsibility for regular reviews and ensure training so laws can be enforced uniformly. Several council members recalled a previous ordinance‑review committee that met periodically and suggested reconstituting a smaller, focused group to avoid unwieldy participation.
The council instructed staff to prepare for a December meeting to begin work on training, outreach and a regular audit cycle for ordinances. The police representative urged an approach that favors written notices first and law‑enforcement involvement only where letters and administrative steps fail. No new ordinances were passed at the meeting; the item was a request for process and coordination.
