The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is opposing a new prowling and trespassing ordinance proposed in Traverse City.
In a letter to the city, the ACLU of Michigan called the drafted measure unlawful and wrote that implementing the ordinances would raise constitutional concerns.
Those ordinances were considered at an Oct. 5 Traverse City Commission meeting amid increasing safety concerns at the city’s Hull Park. Those concerns include public drinking, threatening behavior, and the assault of a local sailing instructor.
Traverse City Police Department data shows that incident reports and arrests at the park have increased significantly, coinciding with the clearing of a local homeless encampment called "The Pines" in May 2025.
If passed, the ordinance would allow police to charge people with “prowl[ing] after dark” on property owned by others with a punishment of up to 93 days in jail.
That ordinance would also amend trespassing penalties which would allow police officers to “require any person violating this chapter to leave any park for the balance of three (3) days.”
While Traverse City Manager Benjamin Marrentette stressed in the Oct. 5 meeting that police would have discretion in enforcement, the ACLU of Michigan said that’s one of the problems.
“When [police] have too much discretion and not enough guidance from the legislature, that creates a risk that they're starting to sort of make the law as they go,” said Holly Hillyer, one of the letter’s authors and a member of the Northwest Michigan Lawyers’ Committee of the ACLU of Michigan.
Currently, the drafted ordinance defines prowling as “willfully lurking about, lying in wait or moving stealthily about private property as if in search of prey or plunder.”
The ACLU of Michigan called this definition “inscrutable.”
“The draft ordinance is so ambiguous that it, in essence, empowers officers to stop and arrest anyone they deem suspicious, and unhoused people are all too often stereotyped that way,” the ACLU of Michigan wrote.
"We reiterate: Although 'the police have the right to request citizens to answer voluntarily questions concerning unsolved crimes, they have no right to compel them to answer.'"American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan | Oct. 14 Letter to Traverse City
That ambiguity, the ACLU of Michigan wrote, will make unhoused people disproportionately at-risk for being arrested or cited for a violation.
"Anti-unhoused prejudice already pervades law enforcement," the letter read, "and the draft ordinance gives officers so much leeway that regardless of their best intentions, implicit bias will almost inevitably shape their enforcement decisions."
Along with this concern, the ACLU of Michigan identified two other "serious constitutional concerns.”
Under the Fourth Amendment, the ALCU of Michigan wrote, arrests and seizures are considered unreasonable unless it is supported by probable cause. The organization argued that the current ordinance language would do away with a probable-cause requirement by allowing police to arrest people on “mere suspicion.”
Under the Fifth Amendment, people have protection against self-incrimination. This part of the ACLU of Michigan’s argument refers to language in the draft ordinance saying that an officer shall give a person an opportunity to “dispel any alarm … by requesting the person to identify himself or herself and explain his or her presence and conduct.”
The ACLU of Michigan letter quotes a Supreme Court decision: "Although ‘the police have the right to request citizens to answer voluntarily questions concerning unsolved crimes, they have no right to compel them to answer.'"
In closing, the ACLU of Michigan argued the trespassing portion of the ordinance violates due process and First Amendment rights and urged the City Commission to reject the draft ordinances.
Reached for comment, Traverse City Mayor Amy Shamroe said the city is waiting for an opinion from the city’s attorney.
A vote to approve the ordinance will happen on Monday, Oct. 19.
