Little Rock’s Board of Directors unanimously approved a new, citywide weekend curfew for young people under 18 years old Tuesday evening, effective immediately. The curfew will run through the end of August
Nine out of the 10 members voted on it, with Director Ken Richardson absent. (Richardson has been absent from board meetings
for over a year,
apparently due to health issues.)
The city board vote comes after Mayor Frank Scott Jr. called for a curfew Monday in response to “disruptive and illegal actions by groups of young people” over the past two weekends.
The curfew will run from 10 p.m. through 5 a.m. every day. There are exceptions for minors who are with their parent or legal guardian, have a work permit or are returning home from a city event or activity. It will end Sept. 2.
City Attorney Tom Carpenter also said that the ordinance directs city staff to collect data about what kind of problems the city has had over the summer related to youth. The intent is that when the ordinance expires, the board can look back on the data to study how to proceed with summer curfews if the board ever wanted to go further. The Little Rock Police Department will collect that data.
Once issued a citation, a minor would have to appear in juvenile court. Parents could also be cited if their child violates the curfew.
The curfew comes in light of incidents over the past two weekends in Little Rock in which teenagers and children have gathered in large crowds, with some participating in illegal acts, particularly around the downtown area. This past Saturday night, July 12,
teenagers allegedly fired guns
among a large crowd of teenagers gathered in a parking lot downtown near the River Market. A fight supposedly escalated to shots being fired.
Though no one was physically harmed by the shots, the incident has rattled nerves downtown. Video captured by teens in the crowd shows people screaming and running away as the shots rang out.
A curfew of 9 p.m. was already in place for the city’s entertainment districts, like the River Market and SoMA, as well as city parks. The city also enforces a weeknight citywide 10 p.m. curfew Sundays through Thursdays.
LRPD Chief Heath Helton said at Tuesday’s board meeting that young people lingering around downtown after the Fourth of July holiday weekend was “part of the problem,” and that Little Rock is not unique when it comes to lingering teens, citing St. Louis, Missouri, Indianapolis and Atlanta, among other cities.
Helton said that the police department is going to pour a lot of additional resources into the River Market District this weekend and will be having officers working overtime to address the issue. He said school resource officers will also be there, since they may be familiar with some students.
“When our young people are out of school, they look for things to do,” Helton said. “And I get that, I have kids. I was a kid. I was born and raised in this city, so I know what it’s like in the challenge to do things — but it’s also a different world now, as opposed to when I was coming up, when we went to the skate rink and the bowling alley. ”
Helton said that when youth congregate in large numbers, now you have to consider whether someone has a weapon. He said that the majority of kids don’t tend to cause problems, but there are “the one or two that show up that are hell-bent on causing melee,” and they create problems for everyone else. He said that’s the problem LRPD has been seeing.
Helton said that the young people who have been issued citations in the past are the people who refused to leave an area after an officer warned them. He said officers give people plenty of opportunities to leave before actually issuing a citation.
At-Large City Director Antwan Phillips asked city staff to explain what the department is currently doing for Little Rock youth.
Michael Sanders, the city’s interim director of the department of community programs, mentioned the city’s midnight basketball program, as well as a music program and a summer workforce development institute. He said the city is brainstorming other ideas so that youth can still enjoy activities they would normally do, albeit “a little bit more constructive.”
Mayor Scott reiterated that the police are not looking to immediately cite young people they come across.
“Many times, if someone’s being cited, it’s because they’ve been unruly,” Scott said. “They’ve been asked three, four, five, six different times. We’re not going to allow lawlessness in the city, but we’re also going to have a grace mindset and a guardian mindset. That’s what we’ve instructed our officers.”
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