Harrison Thorp 8:52 a.m.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020 8:56 am
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ROCHESTER - Rochester Police are experimenting with a new data base technique they hope will allow them to get a better handle on where some of the city's current homeless populations are living.
For instance, a man arrested Friday on theft charges was listed as living in a tent on Walnut Street.
Rochester Police Capt. Todd Pinkham said on Monday police began the practice some time ago of listing some residences of those summonsed or arrested as tents on a particular street or near a particular landmark.
"We've been doing it as sort of an experiment so we find a reference point, a landmark, so we can find them if we have to," Pinkham said.
He said that after they input the data into their system they then have a baseline as to where an individual might be located.
Pinkham stressed that the new listing experiment is not a department policy, it's just a way "to keep better tabs on people."
Pinkham said he couldn't hazard a guess on how many homeless encampments there are in the city, adding that more crop up all the time.
The Walnut Street tent is on private property, so there's little police can do about it. If the property owner wanted it gone, however, police would order it removed, Pinkham noted.