A Times Editorial

Playing curfew politics

Imposing a juvenile curfew in St. Petersburg is unlikely to improve public safety. It would, however, let City Council members appear tough on crime.

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 15, 2000

Without paying any mind to what law enforcement has to say on the subject, St. Petersburg City Council member Jay Lasita is calling for a juvenile curfew for the city.

Talk about taking a sledgehammer to a flea. In addition to being of questionable efficacy, curfews are an unnecessarily heavy-handed response to the problem of juvenile crime.

City Council members Lasita and Kathleen Ford may think curfews will make the night safer, but the people whose opinion counts on the matter -- the police -- are refusing to endorse the idea.

Police Chief Goliath Davis III has opposed curfews in the past and has diplomatically refused to take a position this go-around. But if you review the comprehensive report on curfews issued by the department, the findings make clear that curfews are political devices more than crime-fighting tools.

Curfew supporters say putting teenagers under the equivalent of house arrest every night will reduce juvenile crime and keep young people safely at home. But according to the curfew report submitted to Chief Davis by Randy Bratton, who heads the police youth resources division, the reality is otherwise:

"One major study that did conduct a statistical analysis found that curfews did not work and minority youth were more likely to be arrested than white youths." In other words, curfews aren't just ineffectual; they're often implemented in a way that's racially biased.

As to safety, the report indicates young people are most at risk from violence by non-relatives right after school, at about 3 p.m., well outside the late-night curfew hours of 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays and 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. weekends.

Pinellas Park's experience is worth examining, because it is the model that Lasita wants St. Petersburg to adopt. During the first year of Pinellas Park's curfew, graffiti problems dropped 33 percent but residential burglaries rose 24 percent, and there were 28 percent more runaways. Domestic violence and sexual abuse against children also rose. Responding to the statistics at the time, Pinellas Park juvenile police officer Tracey Shofield explained, "You can't say that's part of the curfew per se, but if kids are at home, those (crimes) are going to go up."

Before St. Petersburg joins the list of local cities that believe young people should be swept from public view, before it paints every young person who chooses to go fishing or jogging at 5 a.m. as a delinquent, before it substitutes the judgment of Lasita and Ford for that of St. Petersburg's parents and police officials, it should consider these facts:

Even without a curfew, serious juvenile crime in the city has dropped 19 percent from 1996-1999 and another 8 percent as of June this year.

Overwhelmingly, gang-related activity takes place outside curfew hours, and most gang members, 76 percent, are adults who wouldn't be affected by the curfew.

So really, what good would a curfew do -- other than giving City Council members something to add to their political resumes to suggest they are tough on juvenile crime?

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