City officials call for curfew enforcement
When kids break curfew in Atlanta this summer, their parents are going to suffer.
City officials said Tuesday they will enforce a longstanding youth curfew ordinance often ignored, fining parents of multiple offenders $1,000 and making them subject to 60 days of jail or community service. A first offense draws a warning; a second offense leads to the tougher standards.
Mayor Kasim Reed, flanked by his police chief, parks commissioner and a top MARTA official, said police patrols will be increased for city parks, recreation centers, pools and potential problem areas. Teens 16 and under can’t be out of their homes without adult supervision from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from midnight to 6 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, according to the ordinance.
“We will be tough on crime; we are not being overly heavy-handed at all,” Reed said.
This latest call for a youth curfew enforcement comes nearly two years after former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin made a similar pronouncement -- without the threat of a fine or jail time.
It also comes more than a month after youths in a large group boarded a MARTA train headed for Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and attacked and injured two Delta flight attendants, leading to three arrests.
However, Gerry Weber, a constitutional rights lawyer, said curfew ordinances in general have received mixed reviews in federal court, including the notion of blaming parents for their children’s crimes.
“The imposition of criminal sanctions on the parents when the wrongdoing is done by the child, that kind of derivative liability has been frowned on by the courts,” Weber said. “That is a challenge that the city is going to have to face if they try to enforce this.”
As part of the increased attention to the curfew, MARTA Police will have an increased presence on trains and buses, and at the Five Points MARTA station.
“After a certain hour, a child needs to be doing child things at home,” said Felicia Butler, a Buckhead mother with a 13-year-old boy. “The penalty is a little steep, the fine and the jail time. However, it may deter parents from having their kids out. Those are the consequences.”
Police Chief George Turner and Reed said they want to create “safe havens” for youths, and the nighttime curfew will coincide with an increased police presence -- including 24-hour park patrols -- at all city-sponsored recreation facilities.
Atlanta’s curfew, with the potential for parents paying fines and going to jail, stands to be the most rigid in the metro area. Cobb and Gwinnett county officials follow state law, which requires youth to be home at similar hours to Atlanta’s ordinance unless supervised by an adult, and enforce curfews on a case-by-case basis.
In Fulton County, youth curfew offenders aren’t arrested unless they’ve committed another crime; police instead will call their parents to come pick them up, said Fulton County Det. Melissa Parker, a department spokeswoman. However, Fulton requires that youth 17 and under answer to the ordinance.
Atlanta has experimented with curfews for years, most notably in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the city dealt with its notorious series of child murders, with 28 black children and young adults abducted and killed.
In 2009, in response to increasing gang violence, former APD Chief Richard Pennington announced a number of reforms, including more aggressive enforcement of the city’s curfew. Yet priorities shifted and rounding up wandering kids no longer was a priority.
