CHARLOTTE — Some councilmembers are worried they are about to criminalize teens but the police chief is insisting that is not what this new curfew is about. She says her officers need another tool to get bad actor teens under control.
A majority of Charlotte City Councilmembers appeared fine with CMPD Chief Estella Patterson’s proposed 9 p.m. curfew for everyone under 18.
“We are not creating a prison pipeline for youth of color,” she said. “We are not punishing good kids for doing the right things.”
She says there will be no special curfew police enforcement unit. She doesn’t have the staff for it. But she says this will give officers a better way to respond to unruly and unauthorized mass gatherings that tend to turn into violence
She says Charlotte’s current curfew is hard to enforce because there are different cutoff times based on age.
“Is 10:45, 11:00 a time where a 13 or 14 year old should be outside unsupervised?” Councilmember Dante Anderson asked. “Are we exposing them to higher moments of victimization or can we do something protective?”
“We have to fight back,” Councilman Ed Driggs said.
Charlotte City Council could approve the new curfew changes in about two weeks.
But at least two councilmembers say they aren’t on board with the curfew in its current form
“I do believe we should target harmful conduct and not make simply being young and out after 9 pm grounds for intervention,” Councilmember JD Mazuera Arias said.
“I said I was going to be neutral and truly listen but I don’t want to support increasing interaction with our youth and police on a negative basis or possibly impacting their criminal record in the future,” Councilmember Renee Johnson said.
The chief says most curfew violations will be handled in juvenile court unless there are other crimes involved like weapons or assault.
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