The Baltimore City Council approved a controversial expansion of the youth curfew law Monday amid an outcry from opponents, who said it is among the strictest in the country.
The new curfew bill requires children under 14 to be home by 9:00 p.m. Youths 14-16 years old must be in by 10:00 p.m. on school nights and 11:00 p.m. otherwise. It makes parents who knowingly allow their children to be on the streets after curfew liable for a fine of up to $500. They can avoid the fine by agreeing to counseling or community service.
In a protest outside City Hall before the council meeting started, Daniella Longchamps, of Baltimore FIST - Fight Imperialism, Stand Together, argued that the bill “gives the police a huge amount of discretion in going after our youth and criminalizing them,” said.
Inside, the opponents unfurled a sign from the balcony of the council chambers that read “No Youth Curfew” and chanted that slogan during the council’s vote.
As expected, the bill passed 11 to 2. Councilmen Carl Stokes and Warren Branch voted against it.
“The greater majority of young people are very much positive young people but I don’t think that the city does enough to make sure that we give them an opportunity to have a good meaningful education experience,” said Stokes.
Branch said his vote reflected the will of his constituents who were not comfortable with the changes. He contended the debate should have been about broader issues.
“The curfew should have went along with the truancy. Other agencies should have been brought in,” he said.
The bill’s sponsor, Brandon Scott, said his proposal was aimed at protecting young people in trouble and was a matter of common sense.
“If you want our young people to be ready at school at 7:00, 7:30 in the morning; we know they have to get up at 6:00; 6:30 in the morning, then we shouldn’t have them out 11:00 p.m. on a school night,” Scott said.
In a news conference after the vote, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake took on the complaints of Stokes, Branch and other opponents. She pledged her administration will open new recreation centers, create a robust summer jobs program and build the city’s first new schools in a generation.
“We have to also acknowledge that despite all of these efforts, there are some young people who fall through the cracks; some young people need additional assistance that a new rec center or a summer job doesn’t provide,” the mayor said.
She said young people picked up by police after curfew would not wind up in the criminal justice system and that the bill is aimed at taking them off the street and out of harm’s way before they become a police concern.
One amendment added to the bill before passage delays its implementation for 60 days after the mayor signs it to allow for the city to prepare to enforce the law. The other said curfew breakers will be referred to Youth Connection Centers that would operate year-round in place of the current curfew centers which are only open during the summer.
The mayor proposed the connection centers in her recent budget to connect families in crisis with social services.
Ingrid Löfgren, an attorney with the Homeless Persons Representation Project, said her members fear the effect of the new curfew on homeless teens and argued that it is dangerous and unnecessary.
“Not only are there things that we as citizens and community members can be doing to look out for one another,” she said. “But the city actually already has the authority to step in and address the types of situations we heard supporters of the curfew expansion describing.”
Sonia Kumar, staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland, said her organization “will be working closely with community organizations to monitor how the bill is implemented and we’ll take it from there.”