Schaumburg cracking down on roadway panhandlers

Schaumburg police recently adopted a no-tolerance policy for solicitors and panhandlers asking for donations along the Route 53 frontage roads and ramps between Golf and Higgins roads, and believe word-of-mouth is already having a deterrent effect.

The new policy, born of regular complaints by motorists, took effect April 1 and has already resulted in four arrests, Schaumburg Police Chief Jim Lamkin said.

But the truly homeless people the officers encountered have also been offered access to the police department's social services section and other resources to help them combat substance abuse and transition their way from homelessness.

"We're not unsympathethetic to people's problems, but they compound their problems when they get hit by a car," Lamkin said.

Indeed, the majority of complaints from motorists have been because they've found the panhandlers' presence a dangerous distraction or feared for a solicitor's safety. There have been no complaints about aggressive behavior, according to police.

During the month and a half since the new efforts began, patrol officers' routine checks of the most problematic areas have shown a noticeable decline in the number of roadway solicitors.

Though panhandlers tend to operate alone at particular intersections, this decline indicates some word-of-mouth is spreading about the new enforcement policy, Lamkin said.

Due to the heavy traffic volume drawn to the Woodfield Mall area, the most prevalent locations for soliciting have been at Higgins and Woodfield roads' intersections with Route 53's east and west Frontage roads.

The new enforcement was enabled, in part, by Schaumburg police's discovery they had jurisdiction to enforce local laws on the ramps along the east side of Route 53. In the past, these ramps were believed to be under the control of Illinois State Police or the Cook County Sheriff's police.