CINCINNATI — Five Cincinnati Parks will close to unaccompanied minors two hours earlier than normal after a vote by the Parks Board in concert with a Cincinnati City Council move to enforce a curfew on teens.
The closures affect The Public Landing, Smale Riverfront Park, Piatt Park, Washington Park and Ziegler Park beginning at 9:00 p.m. through 6:00 a.m.
WCPO 9 talked with multiple people in the affected parks, including Charmaine Whitehead at Zeigler Park.
WATCH: We talk to park goers about new closure times
"They should have already done it," Whitehead said. "There's been kids running rampant down here for three or four years. You've got elders that are scared to come out of their house after a certain time of night."
The mother of three sons was walking through Zeigler Park with her grandson King Mesiah strapped to her back when we talked to her. She said the curfew and early closures could tamp down on more than violent crime, including the problem of car break-ins acknowledged by Cincinnati police this summer.
"Windows broken out on cars, my whole street, everyone had tape. We all look like the garbage bag cars because they had a broken window in their cars," Whitehead said.
Parks Director Jason Barron said moving the park closure up at five parks was done after weeks of conversation with the city as they worked on implementing a curfew on minors.
Cincinnati City Council passed the final version of its curfew ordinance Wednesday afternoon.
Barron said CPD would lead enforcement, and the goal would be to avoid it becoming a "punitive" policy.
He said the new policy would give police a tool to interact with and disperse large groups.
"If you have a group of 200 people that gathered at Smale Park to hang out, 198 of them might be acting fine, but two of them decide to get in a fight or something crazy happens that can lead to a lack of safety for everybody that's in the park," he said.
Barron said there would be exemptions for kids taking part in city-sponsored events in downtown parks, like concerts, if they continue after 9:00 p.m., but he stressed the teens would need to disperse as soon as the events ended.
Barron said they had the design for signs announcing the time change ready to print, and they would be put out next week.
The board indicated they would discuss changing park hours at other parks at their next meeting in August.
