What’s next
County Commissioners are scheduled to vote on a local curfew by month’s end. If approved, it will take effect in December.
DeKalb County is prepared to adopt a law to make it easier to issue tickets to kids, and their parents, if the minors are out too late.
If approved, the local curfew ordinance will mirror a state law that already allows those under 17 to be cited if they are loitering or wandering in public after midnight.
Making it part of local law could increase the number of citations that DeKalb issues, even though the county already relies more heavily on the citations than other large metro Atlanta jurisdictions in a bid to combat nuisance crime.
“Most vehicle thefts, break-ins, vandalism happen between midnight and 5 a.m.,” DeKalb police Maj. Edward L. Jones said. “This is a tool to address those quality-of-life issues.”
Last year, DeKalb issued 222 citations to parents and minors using the state law. By comparison, Atlanta police officers wrote just 116 violations, despite a publicized crackdown on loitering youth.
DeKalb is pledging similarly strict enforcement as part of an overall emphasis on public safety. The county has seen a 2 percent drop in violent crime from a year ago, but advocates of the curfew say a 2 percent uptick in nuisance crime fuels perception of unsafe streets.
County Commissioner Larry Johnson said the proposal should make all residents feel safer but also will make juveniles safe.
“Having a curfew offers a chance for our officers to stop and talk to these kids, to see what they are doing out late, unsupervised,” Johnson said. “They need to be protected, too.”
Several studies question whether curfews can reduce crime in general, especially because their enforcement can keep police officers from tending to more serious crimes.
DeKalb is especially susceptible to that problem. An ongoing loss of officers has left it with just 915 sworn officers to patrol the county, despite being authorized for 1,100 officers.
Beyond that concern, some studies suggest curfews criminalize otherwise typical teen behavior. Doing so could build tensions between law enforcement and young people, especially if uneven enforcement creates the impression of racial profiling.
“What if you were just at your friend’s house watching a movie and fell asleep and at 2 a.m. realize you have to go home,” Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton said. “I just don’t want unintended consequences.”
Jones said officers will not patrol specifically for curfew violations and, in most cases, will issue warnings first. Officers have that discretion now and would retain it under the proposal.
“You’ll find very few cases in which an officer is going to just pull up on any juvenile and write them up,” Jones said. “This is just another tool.”
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