Police Assist But Can't Arrest Men Found Drunk on Bike Path

You can be drunk in public in Barrington.

Two men, ages 56 and 55, were taken to the Rhode Island Hospital detoxification unit last Tuesday, Dec. 3, around 5 pm after being found intoxicated on the East Bay Bike Path near County Road.

The men, from Pawtucket and East Providence, apparently were heading north from Warren, said Barrington Police Chief John LaCross. They made it only as far as Barrington before at least one of them collapsed on the bike path.

The East Providence man, said LaCross, was found with his head on the asphalt bike path and his body sprawled in the adjacent grass and dirt. He had a hard time walking and “was very uncooperative” with one of the patrol officers who responded. 

Because they could not be charged under any Barrington ordinance, the two men were not arrested. They were taken by Barrington EMTS only to the hospital to sober up. 

Their bikes were confiscated by the police until the men returned to get them, said LaCross, who indicated that this might be the right time to consider a law against public drunkenness in Barrington.