Proposal Would Let Chicago Police Declare Citywide Teen Curfews

CHICAGO — A downtown alderman introduced a proposal Wednesday he said he has been negotiating with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration that would give police officials power to declare temporary curfews for unaccompanied minors anywhere in the city on an as-needed basis.

Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, texted some of his colleagues Wednesday morning that he would no longer try to force a City Council vote on an 8 p.m. curfew downtown after a series of so-called “teen takeover” gatherings ended in violence in his ward.

His decision averted what was expected to be a council showdown over how to address chaotic gatherings during the summer.

Instead, Hopkins introduced new legislation he said he has been discussing with police Superintendent Larry Snelling’s team to grant Chicago police brass the authority to announce a curfew for minors in order to give them 30 minutes to disperse from a particular location.

“I’ve been working with the superintendent’s office (he prefers to stay on background, for obvious reasons) to come up with a substitute, and now we have a good one,” Hopkins wrote in the text.

Johnson had taken a dim view in recent weeks of Hopkins’ proposed downtown-only early curfew for minors. Asked Wednesday about whether he backs the alderman’s revised proposal for spot curfews at the discretion of police, the mayor said, “This is an ongoing conversation.”

“I still have not seen any studies where placing a curfew in one section of a region or city yields the type of results that we want,” Johnson said at a news conference after the council meeting. “What we want, we want all of our communities to be safe, we want our young people to be safe.”

Mayoral spokesman Cassio Mendoza said Johnson was working with “Hopkins, the Chicago Police Department and community-based organizations to find solutions to this issue.”

“Mayor Johnson is supportive of the efforts to find a compromise and looks forward to continued conversations on this important issue,” Mendoza said.

Asked about the curfew discussions, a Chicago Police Department spokesperson said on Wednesday: “We have been working with members of City Council to discuss safety around large gatherings and potential solutions that will strengthen safety when these gatherings occur.”

On Tuesday, Johnson had pushed back on the downtown focus of Hopkins’ earlier proposal, which he said he had talked over with the alderman, while signaling an openness to negotiations.

Should Johnson sign off or stay neutral on Hopkins’ new curfew ordinance, the mayor will need to explain the shift to his progressive base.

Last summer, Johnson told the Sun-Times Editorial Board that setting “arbitrary curfews does not yield results that are favorable,” around the same time he said the Millennium Park teen curfew — which is still in place — is “not in line with my vision.” That tracked with his earlier statements as mayor-elect lambasting what he said were attempts to “demonize” Black and Latino youths after teen gatherings turned violent.

On Wednesday, Johnson called for a “holistic approach” while stopping short of endorsing Hopkins’ new curfew measure.

“With my direction, proposals have been placed on the table, and we’ll continue to explore and dig into those proposals,” the mayor told reporters. “What’s most important is, as I’ve said from the beginning, is we cannot just shift the problem into a different neighborhood, and we have to make sure that we are creating spaces for accountability and opportunities.”

The new ordinance would allow the police superintendent or a district commander to declare a temporary curfew based on “real-world conditions” such as intel about a teen takeover, and grant minors 30 minutes to disperse, Hopkins told reporters earlier Wednesday. The curfew then lapses once the incident subsides.

“My colleagues came to me and they said, ‘Alderman, you’re taking care of your neighborhood with this curfew, but it doesn’t apply to mine, and we need it too,’” Hopkins said. “So this is an attempt to accommodate things that could happen anywhere in the city.”

Hopkins said he planned to send the new ordinance to the Public Safety Committee, which he chairs. The move would allow for more discussion about the measure and likely set it up for a final vote next month, before summer begins.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which has opposed curfew restrictions in Chicago, issued a statement Wednesday condemning Hopkins’ latest proposal.

“Curfews are a failed policy that have not been shown to improve public safety,” wrote spokesperson Ed Yohnka. “It is troubling that the City Council would consider giving one person — whether the CPD Superintendent or a district commander — the ability to enforce a curfew at any point.”

Hopkins’ push comes in the wake of two high-profile gatherings of young people in Streeterville that ended in violence. A 46-year-old tourist was shot in the arm on March 9 and a 15-year-old boy suffered graze wounds three weeks later.

It’s a familiar discussion among Chicago leaders whenever the weather warms up. Under Johnson’s predecessor, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, backlash over downtown violence led to her successfully passing a curfew expansion in 2022, but not without controversy.

The curfew law, passed in 1992, had imposed a 10 p.m. cutoff on weekdays and an 11 p.m. curfew on weekends, both of which applied to youths from 12 to 16 years old. Lightfoot’s ordinance amendment moved up the curfew to 10 p.m. across the board and added 17-year-olds to the restrictions.

For children under 12, the curfew remains 8:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, under a law Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed through in 2011.

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