DEPARTMENT: Police
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Anthony L. Trevi?o, Interim Chief of Police
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT:
Re-adoption of the Youth Curfew Ordinance
SUMMARY:
This ordinance will reauthorize the City's Youth Curfew Ordinance which restricts unsupervised youths ages 10-16 from public places during certain hours and helps to keep juveniles off the street in order to prevent and reduce certain crimes from occurring, such as property crimes, graffiti, and disorderly conduct.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On July 25, 1991, the City Council of San Antonio adopted a curfew ordinance restricting unsupervised youths from public places during selected hours. The City Council approved the renewal of the curfew ordinance on May 17, 2012 restricting unsupervised youths from public places during selected time frames. The Texas Local Government Code requires that before every third anniversary of the adoption of the juvenile curfew ordinance, the governing body of the home rule city must review the ordinance's effect on the community and on the problems the ordinance was intended to remedy, and conduct public hearings on the need to continue the ordinance. It also set forth that the City must abolish, continue, or modify the ordinance, or else the ordinance will automatically expire.
Several major Texas cities have similar curfew restrictions for minors. Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, and Houston all have curfew ordinances in place. In each location, the curfew applies to individuals under the age of seventeen. The weekday evening curfew time frame in each city is from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am. With the exception of Austin, the other cities also have a weekday morning curfew which begins at 9:00 am and lasts until at least 2:30 pm. The San Antonio youth curfew ordinance is in line with the other major Texas cities.
If an officer observes an individual who appears to be in violation of the curfew ordinance, upon verifyin...
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