CINCINNATI — Cincinnati will begin enforcing curfew this weekend, Mayor Aftab Pureval announced while discussing the city's safety plan.
The mayor said two curfew ordinances recently passed by Cincinnati City Council will be implemented starting Aug. 15. Those ordinances state the following:
- There is a city-wide curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. for all unaccompanied minors under the age of 18.
- A designated area, including the Central Business District and Over-the-Rhine, will have a curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. — with some exceptions — for all unaccompanied minors under the age of 18.
Here is the designated area where the second curfew will be enforced:
The mayor said anyone who breaks curfew will first be contacted by 311 staff or members of the Collaborative Agreement's problem-solving staff. If they fail to comply, CPD officers will then step in.
"For all enforcement, CPD is trained to ask for compliance, if that fails, to tell the person to comply, and if that fails, to demand compliance," Pureval said.
If they do not comply, CPD can then take the minor to the newly-created curfew center at Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses, where staff will then take up the job of contacting the child's parent or guardian. The facility will have food, water and a safe place for them to wait until their parent or guardian can be contacted.
Pureval said minors who cannot go home or do not have a home will be taken to Lighthouse Youth & Family Services.
In concert with the curfew, the Parks Board also approved changes to five downtown parks. The following locations will be closed from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.:
- The Public Landing
- Smale Riverfront Park
- Piatt Park
- Washington Park
- Ziegler Park
The mayor noted that while the curfew is meant to address crime, the curfew is "fair ... equitable, and most importantly, does not criminalize children."
"The point of this is to save kids," said Pureval. "We want to prevent them from being victims of crime and we want to prevent having to create a criminal record on a kid that will follow them for the rest of their lives."
Pureval also called on parents to "take a greater interest, to be more engaged" in their children's lives — a sentiment he and fellow city leaders have expressed multiple times since discussions of enforcing curfew first began this summer.
