City Council explores enforcing a citywide curfew for unaccompanied minors

CINCINNATI — On Wednesday, the City of Cincinnati discussed the logistics and possibility of more aggressively enforcing a citywide curfew for unaccompanied minors.

City council met Wednesday for a special session for council members — along with City Manager Sheryl Long and Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge — to discuss what it would take for a curfew to be enforced and whether Cincinnati has enough police to realistically make that happen.

At the meeting, Theetge and Long each presented data to council on crime, programs implemented and funded to combat it, hot spots for illegal activity and how a police force would go about enforcing a curfew, followed by questions from council members.

WATCH: City council set in motion violence prevention strategies on Wednesday. We take a look at several of them.

Council unanimously voted to adopt Mayor Aftab Pureval's motion, which called for a review of several different strategies surrounding the more aggressive enforcement of the city's curfew. Long said her office will likely recommend changes be made in the future to clarify some of the motion's language and ensure it is logistically possible for CPD to follow.

Long said CPD and Theetge are still conducting an internal review of policies and procedures and how those fit in with any new ordinance that may be passed. Theetge implied the curfew enforcement may not be the only change to curb youth crime in the future.

"I am still aggressively pursuing some kind of parental accountability initiative," said Theetge.

She said she has been working with the city's law office to determine what that initiative could be, or what form it would take.

Theetge also said stolen firearms — many of them from vehicles — are currently a huge concern, particularly when it comes to youth crime.

"Every time a firearm is stolen, that increases the risk of it being used in a shooting or homicide," said Theetge.

She acknowledged that data shows some of the crimes being committed by juveniles in Cincinnati have taken place in hours of the night that would be subject to the curfew restrictions.

"Our first look does indicate there are some specific neighborhoods in our city that the youth disorder is occurring after current curfew hours," said Theetge.

Long said if the curfew enforcement is implemented, she would likely recommend it be a year-round initiative that focuses primarily on Friday and Saturday evenings.

"We have to be able to have an opportunity to really gauge what is going on and to have it in a consistent way," said Long. "We don't want to just stand it up for summer."

Another main focus for many council members was whether a violation of the curfew by a minor would result in criminal charges on their record. Long said that, in a perfect world, she would prefer a system where law enforcement took any children violating curfew to a "curfew center" that would operate as a safe space that keeps those kids out of harm's way while providing them with education on why their behavior was wrong.

From there, parents would be contacted to come pick up their children, or the child could stay in the curfew center until a guardian could be reached.

The main goal, Long said, is to make sure kids are in safe places during the overnight hours.

"It sounds like it's a step in the right direction, because we're not approaching it in a punitive way. We're approaching it in a holistic way," Councilwoman Meeka Owens said. "I would expect to have meat to the bones [by August] to be able to make a good, informed decision."

Beyond curfew enforcement, another topic of discussion was expanding The Banks' 21-and-over policy to other areas of downtown Cincinnati.

Long said the private business owners at The Banks who fund the current security detail are discussing what an expansion may look like: where, what time and possible funding options. When asked, she said there's a possibility the business owners may ask the city to use taxpayer dollars to fund the expansion.

"What I'm open to is, if a business is impacted as a result of violent crime, disruption, being a good faith partner in that, I think requires public-private investment," Owens said. "We see it in all other things too, and I don't think this should be any different."

Some critics say politics plays a role in the debate over how to respond to crime. The mayor and eight of the nine current city council members are on the ballot this November.

You can see all of the things they discussed at the special session in the document below:

Pureval, Theetge and Long also spoke in a press conference Tuesday, highlighting a recent decrease in violent crime after crime spiked at the start of the summer.

Hear what Pureval said about the curfew one day before council met:

"Our real, true effort was to stabilize and stop the rise. So the decrease is just a really good reflection of the work the officers are doing," Theetge said.

On Tuesday evening, we went out into the community to speak with residents and ask what they thought needed to be done to prevent kids from staying out past curfew.

"Children are to be led and taught by their parents. They shouldn't necessarily be out in extreme hours trying to get educated from the streets," resident Robert Haten said.

Haten continued, saying that parents should be held accountable for children being out late.

Also sitting with us was another Cincinnatian, Jeff Smith. Smith said that he believes kids need more options for positive growth and learning experiences.

“They don’t have these things to go home to look forward to working on while they’re there, which is causing them to get into the mischief that they’re doing," Smith said.

You can read Cincinnati's full curfew ordinance below: