The crowd outside the police headquarters came prepared with lists of recent incidents where they say homeless people were illegally searched or had their belongings seized by police, especially outside of Mathewson Street United Methodist Church in downtown Providence.
“On February 12 at 2 p.m., a police car came down to Mathewson Street and stopped directly across from the church’s front doors,” said Rev. Wendy Van Orden, a retired pastor who volunteers at the church providing services to homeless people, many of whom are also members of Mathewson Street Church. “Two officers got out of the vehicle and started to search a member who was simply standing on the sidewalk. Some of our members called out the officers, saying there was no reason for the search, that it was blatant harassment. The officers directed expletives at our members as the officers got back into their vehicle and departed.”
Instances like this, Van Orden, homeless people, and other advocates, say go against Rhode Island’s Homeless Bill of Rights that says a person has “the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her personal property to the same extent as personal property in a permanent residence,” which includes protection from search and seizure without a warrant.
A formerly homeless woman also named Wendy who declined to give her last name said officers also tried to search her backpack outside of the church several weeks ago.
“They took it off of my shoulder, and they tried, started to open it, to search it. And I grabbed it back. And I said, ‘That’s my property. You can’t search it.’ And they said, ‘Well, we can search it at the station.’ I said, ‘You have no reason to touch me.’ And I walk back in the church.”
Protestors associated with Mathewson Street Church say the number of incidents of harassment has risen along with the state’s homelessness crisis. Van Orden estimates the number of meals the church hands out on a given Sunday has increased from last year by “at least over a hundred” and is now somewhere between 300-400.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of homeless people in Rhode Island rose 35% from 2023 to 2024. The federal government also says Rhode Island is the state with the second highest rate of homelessness.
The scene at the Public Safety Complex, led by activist Harrison Tuttle of the Black Lives Matter of Rhode Island PAC, was sometimes tense, but overall calm and ended with officers promising a meeting between homeless people reporting incidents of harassment and Providence Chief of Police Colonel Oscar Perez.
A spokesperson for the police did not respond to a request for comment by deadline, but officer Roger Aspinall told the rally attendees to bring their statements and photographic and video evidence about the alleged incidents of harassment to their meeting with the chief of police.
“If you bring those to us, we can go back, and we can look at some of these things,” he said. “Every one of our officers wears body-worn cameras. We’ll go back and look at the footage. It’s our responsibility to listen to the public, look at things, investigate it, and come back with answers.”
Van Orden told Aspinall she was pleased with his response, but said she has continued concerns about the safety of unhoused people in the immediate future.
“The urgency of what we’re feeling today is not addressed by an administrative process, which you’ve made very clear, and that’s good, and we appreciate that,” she said. “But we want to know how people can be safe tonight and tomorrow.”
This story was reported by the Public’s Radio.
