Ward 7 Selma City councilwoman Bennie Ruth Crenshaw doesn’t like seeing men’s underwear.

More than three years after the Selma City Council passed a sagging pants ordinance, Crenshaw said the measure is effectively preventing young men from showing off undergarments.

“I absolutely hate sagging pants,” Crenshaw said. “I think the ordinance has had a great effect. The ordinance is to deter and not to fine people and gather money.”

Crenshaw says the threat of fines is enough to reduce incidents.

Flaunting freshly pressed underwear isn’t an arrestable offense in Selma. Instead, courts issue fines and potentially community service.

When passed in December 2010, the sagging pants ordinance set fines of up to $100 for juveniles and 10 to 20 hours of community service. For adults, fines went up to $200 per offense and 10 to 40 hours of community service, according to the ordinance.

The Selma Police Department has issued seven citations since the ordinance’s passage, according to Sgt. Reginald Fitts, who works in internal affairs and code enforcement.

Citations can be issued when pants fall more than three inches below hips on any public property.

Fitts said the number of citations may seem low, but racking up fines for low-hanging pants isn’t necessarily a priority.

“Usually, people will respond to a police officer approaching and pull up their pants because they know of the ordinance,” Fitts said. “It’s basically become a case-by-case basis. If you see a person where it’s a totally obvious offense and it’s been taken to an extreme then we might issue a citation.”

He said sagging pants citations are often accompanied by disorderly conduct charges and initiated by business or property owners.

Crenshaw said the ordinance isn’t an attempt to regulate clothing choices, but rather to instill decency.

“I’ve heard that we can’t be the fashion police, but some things are inappropriate,” Crenshaw said. “I do not want to see a young man’s underwear. There needs to be an awareness that sagging pants aren’t acceptable.”