Pomona : Loitering Ordinance Passed

Two ordinances aimed at reducing teen-age crime were passed on first reading by the City Council, paving the way for final action on the ordinances next week. One ordinance would make loitering in the city’s Civic Center after dark an infraction; the second would make driving past a “traffic control point” three times in one night a misdemeanor. Business vehicles would be exempt.

The loitering ordinance, city officials say, would curb vandalism in government buildings and public drunkenness in the Civic Center courtyard. The other ordinance is part of the Police Department’s effort to cut down on “cruising,” traffic congestion and potential violence on Pomona’s Holt Avenue, according to a memo to the council from Police Chief Don Burnett.

In his memo, Burnett told the council that many of the teen-agers who cruise Holt Avenue, driving up and down the busy thoroughfare several times a night, are members of street gangs, and that cruising “greatly increases the probability for shootings.” The new cruising ordinance was added to the state Vehicle Code in September, 1984, and will be added to the City Code if it wins final approval.