![\"Phoenix](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hqh4tic05ah4l9b9.jpg\")
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PHOENIX<\/strong> – A new city policy took effect Friday<\/strong><\/a> allowing Phoenix Police officers to immediately cite pedestrians for jaywalking or standing in medians without first issuing a warning.<\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n The change to the city code removes a previous requirement that mandated officers provide a warning before a citation. Phoenix Police Lt. Seth Jahnke said the update leaves enforcement up to officer discretion.<\/p>\n “What the new city code has done is, it’s taken away the necessity for a warning and left it up to officer discretion,” Jahnke said, noting that the goal is to keep pedestrians on sidewalks and away from dangerous areas with traffic.<\/p>\n The other side:<\/p>\n While the department frames the move as a roadway safety initiative, advocates for the homeless community argue the policy unfairly targets vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Venable, lead organizer for the Fund for Empowerment<\/strong><\/a>, called the change a “target toward the unsheltered community.”<\/p>\n The shift follows a 2025 ordinance that required permits for groups aiding the homeless in city parks. Critics argue that repetitive citations are less effective than providing services and shelter.<\/p>\n The new policy officially launched Friday, Jan. 16.<\/p>\n Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Phoenix<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX – A new city policy took effect Friday allowing Phoenix Police officers to immediately cite pedestrians for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":522140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,6082,1588,50,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-522139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-crime-publicsafety","12":"tag-maricopa-county","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-phoenix","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115909019841526966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}