A bill slated to be introduced in Pittsburgh City Council Wednesday would create a committee to evaluate whether the city should renew enforcement of a youth curfew.
Council president Theresa Kail-Smith will introduce an ordinance that — if passed — enables her to form a group to determine if and how to bring young people who violate the curfew to a city-run curfew center.
Kail-Smith said the measure is an attempt to “do something” about a rise in violent crime.
“Every day, somebody in this region is being shot,” she said. “I'm hoping that we work together to come up with some solutions for the kids that are counting on us.”
A curfew for residents under the age of 17 already exists in the city code, but it’s rarely enforced. Pittsburgh’s curfew prohibits anyone under 17 from being in public places or on business premises after 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday evenings, and after 12 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
From July 1 through August 31, the weeknight curfew is pushed back to 11 p.m.
In recent months, Kail-Smith has repeatedly pushed the idea of bringing kids to community centers if they are out past curfew.
“We’ve got to get kids off the streets and into centers where they are safe with their families and they can receive resources,” she told WESA. Kail-Smith touts the idea as an alternative to bringing kids to a youth detention center or the Allegheny County Jail.
While other local media outlets reported on the measure earlier this week, the ordinance Kail-Smith is proposing on Wednesday has changed. The bill's original language instructed Mayor Ed Gainey to create a plan to strictly enforce the curfew. The amended proposal puts that power into City Council’s hands. Kail-Smith said she still wants the mayor’s input on how to move forward, but council took the step after it became clear that Gainey wasn't on board with the proposal.
In a statement, a Gainey spokesperson said the mayor’s office researched the efficacy of curfew centers last summer and determined that “there are considerable barriers” that complicate enforcement.
“It would involve asking our officers to require anyone to show an ID without probable cause, and the state of Pennsylvania does not require anyone to have an ID while in public,” the spokesperson said.
The administration further argued that directing police to stop youth out past curfew “creates more distrust between our officers and our youth,” which could harm “the type of community-police relationships that we need.”
Kail-Smith wants to see city staff enforce the curfew instead of police. “We already pay social workers… we already have outreach workers,” Kail-Smith noted. She argued the goal is to “utilize the resources we have to effectively make … a positive change in kids’ lives without giving them a criminal record.”
Other cities, including Chicago and Philadelphia, have taken similar measures recently as violent crime has increased nationwide.
Philadelphia City Council voted for a permanent 10 p.m. curfew for minors in December. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the city’s police department has been assigned to enforce the measure and will take youth found in violation to one of three evening community resource centers.
Kail-Smith noted that Erie and nearby McKees Rocks also enforce curfews. But she stressed the city’s curfew process would not be punitive.
“I think the difference is we're saying a curfew with a place with resources you're taking them to instead of to a Shuman Center,” she said, referring to the county's closed juvenile detention center. (Allegheny County is currently seeking to hire a private company to reopen the center.)
While enforcing the curfew was met with backlash by some online, there has been support for it from some business owners. At a summer meeting in the city’s South Side, residents repeatedly claimed underage drinking and loitering teens were the precursor to violent events and urged officials to enforce a curfew.
Though the city hired Three Rivers Youth to operate a curfew center during a pilot program in 2009, the last city-run curfew center closed in 2004. Tracy Royston oversaw the closure during her time as the city’s youth services manager. She recalled the city’s decision to close the center was based on low utilization and a lack of funding.
“In addition to it being so costly, we really took a hard look at the numbers and we really didn't see any correlation between the curfew center and crime statistics,” said Royston, who is currently a candidate for city controller.
At the time, Pittsburgh had just been declared financially distressed and acted to lay off about 100 police officers. Royston said police were rarely bringing kids to the curfew center, and the layoffs made the situation even worse.
“It was really not a great use of the public safety dollars,” she said. “It was really diverting the officers to … babysit when they had to stay with the teen and wait until a parent or guardian arrived.”
She estimated that there would be, on average, no more than a couple of kids at the center.
“While this may be something that had worked elsewhere … it did not work here without those resources of additional officers and public safety dollars,” Royston said, referring to the city’s well-documented police staffing woes.
Royston said the ordinance is well-intentioned. But she suggested council members work with community groups to determine a more effective strategy.
“They know what's happening in their own neighborhoods and having them have a voice at the table would just create further buy in,” she argued.
Kail-Smith said forging partnerships with community groups and leaning on their expertise will be part of what her proposed committee's approach. She suggested recipients of the city’s Stop the Violence grants could be asked to provide a location to bring young people.
While the Gainey administration expressed misgivings about the curfew, a spokesperson said it would support expanding hours at city rec centers to provide more resources for youth. The office also "look[s] forward to discussing with council how we can work together on this important issue for our city," spokesperson Maria Montaño said.
The ordinance requires that the committee propose a plan by the end of March.
Council is expected to discuss the matter during a standing committee meeting next week.
