NCJ Number
153037
Journal
Police Chief Dated: (December 1994) Pages: 29,31,33-34,36,57-61
Date Published
1994
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article describes the experiences of various police agencies in cities around the country which have instituted juvenile curfews in an effort to reduce delinquency rates.
Abstract
When deciding how to enforce its juvenile curfew, the Phoenix Police Department confronted several problems: (1) the city's juveniles outnumbered its police officers, (2) there was no suitable place for processing curfew violators, and (3) the curfew ordinance was confusing both to juveniles and to their parents. As a result, the city amended the curfew ordinance to be more consistent, and the police department implemented a program whereby curfew violators could be processed efficiently without affecting the patrol force's ability to respond to other calls. When the city of Dallas enacted a juvenile curfew, it included an extensive list of exceptions in order to avoid any unnecessary infringement of juveniles' individual liberties. The department also developed comprehensive procedures to ensure fair enforcement of the ordinance and promoted the curfew through public education programs and training. In Long Beach, California, police officers are attributing a downward trend in juvenile crime to the enactment of an expanded antiloitering and juvenile curfew program in early 1994. Finally, the article describes the response taken by police in Wilmington, Delaware, to juvenile curfew violations.