Don't get caught with your pants down below your waist on city of Ocala property. You could face up to a $500 fine and six months in jail.
The Ocala City Council voted 4-0 Tuesday to pass an ordinance that prohibits anyone on city property from wearing their pants two inches below their natural waist in a way that exposes underwear or bare buttocks.
Council President John McLeod was absent.
This is the second time Councilwoman Mary Rich requested the ordinance. In 2009, the ordinance died when none of the other council members would second the motion. Rich told Mayor Kent Guinn on Tuesday that one of his objections in 2009 was that it could lead to profiling but she said it would not be profiling because kids of both genders and all races offend.
"It doesn't matter what color they are," Rich said. "They all wear their pants down."
Guinn, who heads the Ocala Police Department, asked how an officer can measure if the pants were two inches below the waist if the person sees an officer and pulls up the pants.
He said it is not like seat belts, which are either being worn or not.
"We are not looking to charge people," City Attorney Patrick Gilligan said. "If they don't comply, I think the chief will tell police officers to take your phone out and take a picture."
He said the judge can look at the picture and make a decision. The offense would be a second-degree misdemeanor.
"If it's a close call, they get acquitted," Gilligan said.
After the meeting Gilligan said the city has the right to make sure people are not naked and feels the same can be said about the sagging pants.
"We have the right to say you have to be clothed in public, fashion statement or not," Gilligan said.
He said the issue may be: Is it constitutionally vague?
"I don't think it is," Gilligan said.
He said if a judge is shown a photo with someone with their pants down around their knees, it would not be vague since the ordinance has the 2-inch rule.
Asked if any indecent exposure laws already exist, he said, "There's a state statute. I don't know what it entails."
Gilligan said other jurisdictions have these types of ordinances but the city's is different because it is written in a way there is a presumption the officers will give a warning. He said this ordinance is similar to the noise ordinance. If officers are called about a noise complaint, they ask the offender to stop and, generally, it stops. But, if the noise continues, officers can make an arrest. They could make an arrest without giving a warning, but they generally do not.
Asked what happens if someone goes to a park or swimming pool or splash pad in a bathing suit that may be as revealing, Gilligan said, "If that becomes a problem, we will start dealing with that. Right now, it's pants on men or women."
The sagging pants ordinance is enforceable on city-owned or leased property, which includes city sidewalks, streets, parks, sports and recreation facilities, swimming pools, parking lots, municipal buildings, the downtown square, bicycle paths, public transportation facilities, terminals, airports and water or sewer facilities.
Underwear is any piece of clothing worn between the skin and an outer layer of clothing. A buttock is considered exposed if any portion of a person's intergluteal cleft is showing.
When asked about a service worker whose cleft might show, "He will get a warning like everybody else," Gilligan said.
At Tuesday's meeting, Guinn also questioned whether the ordinance could be used to "further some other things we are trying to get done."
For instance, he asked if officers could tell a person to pull up their pants and then ask if, by the way, there are any illegal drugs in those pants.
"We will use a great deal of discretion when we enforce it," Ocala Police Chief Greg Graham told council members.
Graham said if officers make an arrest they have an obligation to search the person before handcuffing them and placing them in a police car.
"I would not want this ordinance enacted just so we can do that," Graham said. "I would want it enacted because it's the right thing to do."
He said he could envision issues regarding measurements but that is why officers can use discretion.
Howard Gunn, who was a teacher in Marion County for 22 years, told the council he does not like the droopy drawers either, but asked that the council table the ordinance for further discussion. He said he thinks it could be used for profiling, particularly black boys.
"Most of these kids you are dealing with are ones that have probably been in jail or are going to jail," Gunn said. "A lot of times they are going through things. And we slap this on them, they are going to go further."
Gunn was concerned about the enforcement.
"The kids are going to say something to you because they don't know the law," Gunn said about the police. "And then, there you go. Escalation. Now you have an assault on a police officer."
Rich said she does not see the ordinance as profiling and that Ocala has a "fine police department."
"It's disrespectful," Rich said about the sagging pants. "If you pull them up, you might be a better citizen because you may be able to find a job, J.O.B."
Gunn said it goes deeper than the sagging pants.
"The persons you are going to be arresting will be young black boys — most of them; not all of them," Gunn said. "Let's think about what we are doing here, not just because you hate (the drooping pants), but there are some repercussions for these boys that are severe for having their pants down."
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