Teen challenging Largo juvenile curfew

The challenge would go before the judge who threw out Pinellas Park's juvenile curfew in 1998.

By ERIC STIRGUS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 14, 2001

LARGO -- The days of the controversial juvenile curfew in Largo may be numbered.

An attorney representing a teenager arrested for violating the city's curfew and other charges is seeking a hearing to argue that Largo's curfew is unconstitutional, city officials have learned. What has city officials concerned is that the hearing would be in front of Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Peter Ramsberger, who struck down Pinellas Park's juvenile curfew in 1998.

City officials declined to discuss details of the arrest because it involves a juvenile. The attorney representing the teenager did not immediately return a telephone call for comment.

Largo's curfew is patterned largely after the one in Pinellas Park, which, in 1997, became the first municipality in Pinellas County to enact such an ordinance. Pinellas Park's curfew is on hold while it's being appealed.

"I assume it is going to be the same challenge," Largo City Attorney Alan Zimmet said of the hearing, which is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 5.

Although city commissioners voted 6-1 in favor of creating a curfew in April 1998, City Manager Steven Stanton thinks as many as five commissioners would now vote against the ordinance.

"I don't think the majority of the commissioners would want a legal challenge," he said Monday afternoon. "I suspect there's not enough support among the majority of the commission today."

The ordinance may be discussed at tonight's 5 p.m. commission meeting, Stanton said.

Two of the commissioners who voted in favor of the ordinance, Thomas Feaster and Jim Miles, are no longer on the city commission.

Largo's curfew has been hailed by its supporters as a powerful tool in curbing youth crime and protecting children. Juvenile crime has dropped by 40 percent in several categories, according to police department figures.

"I think it has been pretty useful," said City Commissioner Jean Halvorsen. "A lot of our problems have been solved by it."

The curfew prohibits anyone younger than 18 to be in a public place between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. during the week or between midnight and 6 a.m. on weekends. The curfew also allows police to round up unsupervised young people during school hours. A teenager caught violating the curfew for the first time is given a warning and usually performs some community service. Multiple violators are charged with a second-degree misdemeanor. If convicted, they must pay a fine of up to $500 and can be sentenced to as long as six months in jail.

Some opponents of the curfew argue it is discriminatory toward young people. Others say it should be parents' responsibility to monitor their children, not the government's.

"The government is not the solution to everything," said City Commissioner Mary Laurance, who voted against continuing the curfew in January 2000. "The more you take from parents, the more you lean on government, and that concerns me."

Police say they caution their officers to act responsibly when it comes to the curfew. For example, officers are strongly discouraged from looking for violators at 11:02 p.m. Many of the violators are performing other criminal acts, they say. Each case is reviewed by a supervisor.

Andy Hill, a Largo police sergeant who is in charge of the department's office of youth services, thinks the curfew has worked well.

"We don't see them in the malls," he said. "We're not picking them up for retail theft. Obviously, that's accomplishing what it needs to do."

-- Information from Times files was used in this report.

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