Bend city councilor John Hummel has a problem with a Bend Police Department policy that allows officers to stop pedestrians – anywhere, anytime – and ask for identification.

The issue arose after a friend, Bend lawyer Michael Levitz, was stopped on Newport Avenue as he was walking home at about 11 p.m. on a March night. According to Hummel, a city police car made a U-turn; an officer got out of the car, pointed a spotlight on Levitz, approached him with a flashlight and asked for his name. When he refused to produce ID, she radioed for backup. Levitz told Hummel about the incident, but Levitz could not be reached for this story.

Police Chief Andy Jordan said talking to people on the streets is an important part of policing.

”During those conversations, (officers) like to know who they’re talking to,” he said.

Many times, in chatting with individuals, police decide not to ask for ID. But asking for ID is a legal and long-established practice, Jordan said. However, he said, police cannot demand ID nor can they detain people who don’t have it or refuse to disclose it.

Sometimes, the practice turns up folks with warrants, he said. The department does not have specific statistics to show how many pedestrians are asked for ID or how many stops result in arrests.

Jordan said deciding who to talk to and who to ask for an ID is a judgment call. Based on experience and training – and intuition – officers sometimes feel like people might be lying to them, giving them reason to ask for ID.

City councilor Kathie Eckman said she trusts the police to make those judgment calls, and believes this one situation was isolated – and perhaps an error in judgment – because she’s never heard complaints about the practice before.

Eckman said generally police ask for ID only under limited circumstances. If someone appeared to be doing something inappropriate, or some kind of crime was happening in a certain neighborhood and then someone suspicious was wandering around there late at night, it’s appropriate, she said.

But she said there needs to be cause – after all, police can’t stop drivers without cause to check their ID, she said.

”I think the same applies to pedestrians and everyone else. They can certainly stop and chat with you, but it’s not appropriate to ask for ID without reason,” she said.

The reasons are what trouble Hummel. He’s concerned that there’s a bit of profiling involved. Police, in the name of public safety, are targeting people they think look like troublemakers, he said. Hummel said he thinks the people targeted are probably younger or less educated than Levitz and don’t complain about the procedure.

”What if they went into Broken Top (gated community)? Would they be fine with it? I don’t think so. You’d have complaints in minutes,” Hummel said.

Hummel said Jordan told him if he’d been the one driving down the road when Levitz was walking home that March night, he probably wouldn’t have stopped him because he’s in his 40s and ”respectable looking.”

”So would it be OK if he was young and had a tattoo?” Hummel asked. ”He’s (Jordan) really saying he’s targeting people to stop, and he thinks that is OK.”

Hummel said overall, he thinks it’s good that police stop and talk to people, to let people know the police are working to protect the community.

But he’s asking the city’s legal counsel to research if asking for ID is constitutional.

And Hummel, who is an attorney, is doing his own research on the practice. He brought his concerns to the basic services committee meeting recently and plans to engage the entire council in the discussion because he’d like the police department’s policy to change so police can’t ask pedestrians for ID without cause.

Eckman, who is on the basic services committee, said the council doesn’t generally get involved with internal department policies. She’s not in favor of changing the policy, she said, because it could tie the hands of police.

”I don’t feel that strongly about it, but I’m not a lawyer,” she said. ”Is it a big enough issue to change policy, or is it big enough to have a discussion about it with officers?”

Jordan said in his 25 years in the field, the practice has been common around the nation. He said the city has been using the practice for as long as he can remember, but the written policy is new.

Hummel said the policy became written after the incident involving Levitz.

”This is getting blown way out of proportion,” Jordan said. ”It came about because the man who was stopped is a friend of Hummel’s.”

Anne Aurand can be reached at 541-383-0323 or aaurand@bendbulletin.com.