CHICAGO (WLS) — The Chicago City Council’s Public Safety Committee is expected to take up a revised ordinance to give police the authority to impose specific curfews.
Changing the teen curfew has been a debate among city leaders for the better part of a year now.
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Alderman Brian Hopkins chairs the committee and is pushing to allow for specific “time-and-site” curfews -to thwart teen takeovers.
The city’s current curfew for teens under 18 is 10 p.m., except for Millennium Park, which has a 6 p.m. curfew following previous violent takeovers there.
Police dispersed a teen gathering during the Millennium Park tree lighting in November.
The chaos that followed led to 14-year-old Armani Floyd being shot and killed downtown and eight other teens hurt.
If passed, specific curfews would need approval from the deputy mayor for public safety and require 12 hours advance notice.
It’s something Hopkins says the mayor used to make New Year’s Eve celebrations safe this year downtown, when he issued a warning with the police superintendent that the curfew would be enforced.
“Well, he can’t be against it because he used it. He used it on New Year’s Eve. He declared a time-and-place curfew, announced that it would be enforced, and it worked. People behaved themselves. We didn’t see large groups of unaccompanied minors during the New Year’s Eve celebration. So, this is an effective tool,” Hopkins said.
Two days before New Year’s, the mayor and police superintendent issued a warning that the city would enforce the 10 p.m. curfew already on the books and that minors had to be accompanied by an adult if they came downtown.
“I’ve never been opposed to a curfew for teenagers. What I’ve been opposed to is to have unilateral control offered into one entity of government to determine if a curfew should be implemented,” Johnson said.
A second proposal is also being considered Wednesday, which would require social media platforms to take down posts about teen takeovers or face fines.
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