The Bend City Council is scheduled to consider a proposal this week to expand the city’s civil exclusion zone to the downtown. Before the council acts, it should first ensure the zone has been used properly in the past.

Exclusion zones allow police to exclude individuals from an area without a conviction. The zones have been challenged in some cities by those who argue they go too far in restricting individual rights in an attempt to improve public safety.

Bend has an exclusion zone that includes all the city parks, Riverfront Plaza and the adjoining breezeway. Bend police can bar an individual from that zone for 90 days if he is cited or arrested within the zone for a variety of misdemeanors and felonies.

Bend’s exclusion does allow an appeal. A person can appeal the ban just as he can challenge the original citation or arrest. The ban is suspended during an appeal

The change the council will consider would extend the existing zone throughout most of downtown.

Bend Police Chief Jim Porter told the council recently that the exclusion zone in the parks was “very effective” in helping the police manage chronic offenders. He said it should be used sparingly, with discretion and based on illegal behavior. Since 2012, he said it has been used 156 times.

What happened in those 156 cases? The council should feel comfortable with how it was used.

When we asked Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel if he favored the expansion of the exclusion zone, he said he did, but he will monitor how it will be used. He did not know how it has been used.

There’s another reason to ask questions about expanding the zone. Porter said some chronic offenders discovered they could move downtown once they were excluded from the parks. The exclusion zone moved the problem. So if the zone is expanded to downtown, where would the problem be moved to next?

Bend’s downtown is a great place to eat, shop and just to be. We want to see it continue to thrive. But it won’t help if Bend earns a reputation for unreasonable exclusions.