PRAIRIE CITY – Police officer Jim Wood addressed the City Council at the January meeting regarding a request to draft an ordinance to give the police department the authority to ban citizens from public areas.

He recapped an incident wherein some teens accosted people in the city park and tried to start a fight.

He instructed the teens to leave the park, but they returned later and were cited for criminal trespass.

The former district attorney said he wasn’t sure if he could prosecute if the city didn’t have an ordinance in place covering the issue.

Wood obtained a copy of the Portland ordinance from the League of Oregon Cities and asked the council to consider drafting one for the city. It was agreed the council would consider it.

In another matter, the police department will need to obtain training on the new standardized field sobriety test and (breath test) in order to qualify for any DUII grants, Wood said.