The ordinance expired in November and required readoption every three years.
Various community members spoke during public comment at the past three meetings where the ordinance was on the agenda, calling it "discriminatory" and "not effective." A petition has also circulated against the ordinance.
At the Nov. 15 meeting, the council was supposed to receive a presentation about the ordinance; however, Police Chief Stan Standridge did not have a presentation ready and stated that, “until a month ago,” he was not aware that the city had a juvenile curfew ordinance.
The council held the first public hearing but hit a stalemate with a 3-3 vote to approve the ordinance at that meeting.
At the following meeting Dec. 6, Standridge went over a presentation with information about the ordinance.
Those between the ages of 10-17 are subject to the curfew ordinance between 11 p.m.-6 a.m. Sun.-Thu., midnight-6 a.m. Fri.-Sat. and 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri., according to the presentation, which can result in a fine of $50 and any other related court costs.
The ordinance also applies to the individual’s parents but does not apply to those under 10 years old as they are considered children and cannot be criminally prosecuted.
There are exceptions to the ordinance, such as employment, an emergency or an excused absence.
Ultimately, the council voted unanimously to send the ordinance to the Criminal Justice Reform Committee for review and also added a stipulation that data regarding the ordinance be compiled every year. The council also voted to add in an exception regarding children who are homeschooled and unanimously approved the first reading of the ordinance.
The ordinance was on the consent agenda Dec. 14 and was pulled by Council Member Alyssa Garza for further discussion; however, a motion to postpone the ordinance was brought up.
“I am not going to be supporting the postponement. [The ordinance] is something we have had around since ‘94. I think I voted on it four times. There were no comments. If this were really a huge problem, people would have been down at citizen comment way before now,” Mayor Jane Hughson said.
Standridge mentioned there is no racial disparity as related to the application of the ordinance. However, data Standridge presented at the Dec. 6 meeting showed that Hispanic students made up around 73% of the citations issued since 2017.
“I’m not trying to draw the correlation between the efficacy of this curfew and crime going up or crime going down,” Standridge said. “This is simply a tool on a buffet of options.”
To read the ordinance, click here.
