Austin to reconsider curfew for kids
Members of City Council are exploring changes to a 27-year-old ordinance aimed at keeping kids off the streets at night and during school hours.
Currently, those under age 17 who are caught wandering about unaccompanied during school days from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and any day between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. can be cited for a Class C misdemeanor, the lowest-level criminal offense.
The ordinance was put in place in 1990 in the wake of a rising juvenile crime rate, according to an Austin Police Department report prepared for Council, which contends that the ordinance has been a stunning success.
The department points out that from 1987 to 1989, the last two-year period before the ordinance went into effect, 11 percent of Austin minors were arrested. Between 2014 and 2016, only 3 percent were arrested. Furthermore, juveniles now make up a much smaller proportion of overall arrests: 4 percent compared to 12 percent.
Read more: https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2017/05/council-reconsider-curfew-kids/