Title
A. Conduct a public hearing to receive citizen input regarding the juvenile curfew ordinance.
B. Consider an ordinance finding that the juvenile curfew Ordinance No. 2996 has had a positive effect on the community and on the problems the ordinance was intended to remedy and the Council has found there is a need to continue and readopt the ordinance as authorized by law.
Body
On October 3, 1994, the City Council approved Ordinance No. 2996 establishing a nighttime curfew applicable to persons under 17 years of age. The curfew ordinance established an offense if a minor remains in a public place or at an establishment between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. on weeknights or between midnight and 6 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. The ordinance provides nine exceptions or defenses, including:
1. Minors accompanied by a parent or guardian;
2. Minors on an errand as directed by a parent or guardian;
3. Minors involved in interstate travel;
4. Minors engaged in employment activity or going to or from work;
5. Minors involved in an emergency;
6. Minors on their own property or on adjacent property, absent a complaint from the neighboring property owner;
7. Minors attending official school, religious or other supervised recreational activity;
8. Minors exercising First Amendment rights; or
9. Minors who are married or who have had minority status removed in accordance with the law.
The provisions of the ordinance are identical to those of a City of Dallas ordinance, which passed judicial review. A number of suburban cities adopted identical ordinances tending to displace juvenile activities to those cities without curfews.
A state law passed in 1995, codified as Chapter 370.002, Texas Local Government Code, mandates a governing body review of juvenile curfew ordinances every three years. The law requires the governing body to:
1. Review the ordinance or order's effects on the community and on problems the ordinance was intended to remedy;
2. Conduct public...
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