DEBATE

Can curfew for juveniles cut crime?

A 15-year-old boy was stopped by Huntington Police about 4 a.m. Wednesday near a street corner on the city's South Side.

Officers patted the boy down and found three grams of crack cocaine, along with a pocket knife and more than $250 in cash. He was arrested on felony drug charges.

Would this boy still have been on that street corner if community centers had more money to stay open later? Would he still have had drugs in his pocket if there were mentorship programs to give him a positive role model in his life? Would any of this have happened if someone stood up and said "We're not going to allow our children to fall into a world of crime anymore?"

Maybe. Maybe not.

City Councilwoman Brandi Jones is tired of wondering. That's why she led a push last month to adopt a stronger version of the city's nighttime juvenile curfew, which has been buried in the city's law books for several years, but rarely, if ever, enforced.

"I know that solving youth crime involves much more than a curfew ordinance," Jones said. "This may not be the end-all, be-all solution, but it's a start. We have to do something rather than continue to talk about our problems."

Many community leaders, law enforcement officials, parents and teens are quick to applaud Jones for her efforts and agree that Huntington is wrestling with a growing drug trade that has entangled too many young people.

But they are just as quick to disagree with her on juvenile curfews. Opponents argue that the laws violate parents' rights, target minorities, relegate juveniles to second-class citizenship and are likely to punish good kids while doing nothing to deter the bad ones.

"My parents allow me to stay out late at night, because I've earned their trust," said Thea Cooper, 16, a junior at Huntington High School. "If I'm forced to come in earlier because of a city curfew, it's like losing all the privileges I've earned for being good."

Nevertheless, cities continue to adopt juvenile curfews. According to a survey released last year by the National League of Cities, 67 percent of the 701 cities surveyed said they had a juvenile curfew. Also, 96 percent of the respondents said curfews are either very or somewhat effective at fighting juvenile crime, and 91 percent said curfews have reduced juvenile violence.

The survey, however, can be misleading, because "it may provide anecdotal evidence that cities are using curfews to combat youth violence, but it does not provide any solid trend data on whether they are effective," said Clifford Johnson, executive director of the Institute for Youth Education and Families at the National League of Cities.

"Curfews are likely to be more effective if combined with other strategies, and less effective if they are stand-alone policies," Johnson said. "If the only weapon a city has to fight juvenile crime is a curfew, at best, you are moving some of the risk-taking behaviors out of certain blocks of time. But you're doing nothing to address the main factors that are causing the problem."

Curfews are risky for cities because they feel like a quick fix, Johnson said.

"It doesn't cost the city any money to adopt a curfew and the community feels like something has been accomplished," he said.

In reality, the cost runs high for law enforcement agencies that aggressively enforce curfews, Johnson said. But there's no benefit to the community unless curfews serve as a catalyst for connecting troubled teens with programs to help them deal with their problems.

"If curfews aren't being used as triggers to introduce kids to a mentorship program or a traditional Boys and Girls Club that combines recreational and constructive activities, then they have little or no value."

Huntington Police Chief Arthur E. "Gene" Baumgardner told City Council members last month that, to his knowledge, the Police Department never has arrested a juvenile for a curfew violation. He also said that enforcing curfews is not a good use of a police officer's time.

Baumgardner did not return several phone messages requesting comment this week.

Jones said it's no secret that Huntington Police have limited resources to combat growing crime problems. She also recognizes that a curfew may not be at the top of the department's priority list. Still, those reasons shouldn't be used as excuses for not enforcing a law, she said.

"It's City Council's role to create policy based on constituents' concerns, and it's the responsibility of administrators to enforce them," Jones said. "If the Police Department is strongly against a curfew, administrators should express their concerns to us and see how we can adjust it."

In the next few months, Jones said she wants to launch a public relations campaign aimed at educating parents and teens about the curfew and have forums with community leaders and law enforcement officials to discuss long-term solutions for curbing juvenile crime.

"We need to look at other communities and see how they are providing avenues for their young people to come in contact with positive role models and programs that keep them off the street," Jones said. "There's certainly enough civic organizations and churches in the area that could help us accomplish that."

Parents, teens weigh in

Though parents and their teenagers might be accustomed to arguing about the appropriate time to come home at night, many say that decision should never be left to a governing body.

"My children don't need a city ordinance in order for them to know when it is appropriate to come home and what their behavior should be," said Huntington resident Maurice Cooley, who has a 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. "That clearly is established in our home."

A government-imposed curfew will not change the reality that many parents either do not know or do not care to know where their children are during the late-night hours, Cooley said.

"A curfew is a miniature element to a major social problem," he said. "There has to be some intervention to alter some parents' thinking. But it takes a long-term strategy, not a quick fix."

Several area teens say a wide-sweeping plan to keep kids off the streets at night should include more things for them to do. A group of Huntington High students interviewed this week suggested a skate park and more recreational activities at community centers, among other things.

But as Willis Johnson, a 15-year-old sophomore, puts it, it takes more than something to do.

"You aren't going to stop kids from committing crime by locking them in their houses. There's a drug problem in this city," he said. "When you get rid of the drugs in Huntington, you'll get kids off the streets."

Bryan Chambers
4 November 2005

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051104/NEWS01/511040307/1001/NEWS