Municipal attorney: Title 8 changes effective; APD supervisors trained as joint state task force launches

Municipal Attorney Eva Gardner told the Assembly Rules Committee on March 12 that the municipality recently enacted changes to Title 8 of the penal code and that enforcement preparations are underway.

"We are still waiting for them to process their way through the state department of public safety and the court system," Gardner said, adding that the waiting does not prevent the city from training. "Just this morning I was over with APD starting the work of training their supervisors on how to enforce these changes to the law. So hopefully enforcement will begin soon. We have a target date of the 16th to have all the officers trained up," she said, while noting the date may flex depending on court system timelines.

Chief of staff to the mayor, Suzanne Fleet Green, and Gardner also described a newly announced joint state–municipal quality-of-life task force that was unveiled at a press conference the prior day with the mayor, governor and attorney general. Gardner said the task force includes cross-designated prosecutors and will focus in part on "aggressive prosecution of retail theft" alongside other collaborative public-safety efforts.

Suzanne Fleet Green urged committee members to direct questions to staff as the administration finalizes details and implementation steps for coordination with state partners. Committee members asked about timing and scope; Gardner reiterated that formal charging in the courts depends on the state and judiciary processing the ordinance updates but stressed the municipality is not delaying operational training in the meantime.

The committee did not take formal action on the report. Staff indicated they would return with additional implementation details as training and coordination proceed.