The Honolulu Police Department is conceding that officers erred when they issued a ticket this week to a man sitting on a city bench on Kalakaua Avenue.

The so-called sit-lie law, which took effect Sept. 16 and which patrol officers began enforcing Oct. 8, bans people from lying down or sitting on public sidewalks in the Waikiki Special Design District, defined as the area bordered by Ala Wai Canal and Kapahulu Avenue.

Michael Natividad, the man cited, used his cellphone to record the incident on video. In the video, two officers tell him he is being cited because "the bench is part of the sidewalk."

New laws come with a learning curve "and the sit-lie law is no exception," HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu said in an email. "In this case, a citation should not have been issued because the sit-lie law does allow for someone to sit on a public bench on a public sidewalk. This was recently clarified with the officers."

But that doesn’t mean Natividad, 40, was within his rights to sit on the bench, located along the makai sidewalk between Uluniu and Liliuokalani avenues, at 3:30 a.m., Yu said.

Police consider the bench as part of Kuhio Beach Park, so Natividad could have been cited for violating the city’s park closure ordinance, she said. "The bench in the video appears to be within a park area."

In fact, Natividad told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, he’s actually received three park closure citations for sitting on the same bench on three other nights in recent weeks.

The court hearing for the first of the citations is Thursday. Natividad said he plans to contest all of the citations.

The bench faces the street next to a bus stop and was placed there for bus riders, he said. It’s also outside of the park and — as officers in the Monday morning incident told him — on the sidewalk, he said.

"It’s not a park, it’s not the sidewalk, it’s a bus stop," Natividad said, arguing that HPD cannot interchangeably call the bench part of the sidewalk and the beach park to suit its purposes.

During the first of the four incidents, an officer was going to issue him a sit-lie ticket. But when he asked for a sergeant, they changed their minds and gave him a park closure citation, he said.

The Waianae native, who said he’s called Waikiki streets his home "off and on" for the past 20 years, acknowledges having received dozens of tickets tied to his sleeping on the streets.

"Usually I plead guilty," he said. "If I’m guilty, I’m guilty. But this sit-and-lie law is going too far."

Because he’s not supposed to sleep on the beach when it is closed between 2 and 5 a.m., he sits on the bench during those hours, he said.

Natividad said he cannot work because he has been diagnosed with sciatic nerve damage in his back.

His disability payments are not enough to pay for a monthly rental, but he has a membership at a nearby fitness club, giving him access to the restrooms and showers there.

He said he would be happy to qualify for the city’s Housing First program, but that no one has talked to him about it. He does not like the idea of moving to a proposed homeless encampment on Sand Island in the interim.

Yu said police have issued 26 citations and 295 warnings for sit-lie violations since the law went into effect. No one has been arrested.

A bill now moving through the City Council would expand the sit-lie ordinance to business districts throughout Oahu, but only from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

Since Oct. 8, officers have also issued four citations for people who have violated the new Waikiki urination-defecation law. One person was arrested due to a felony drug charge.