LONG BEACH TO BEGIN ENFORCING CURFEW

LONG BEACH -- Teens who stay out past 10:30 p.m. may have a new hangout:
the police station.

Beginning tonight, the Long Beach Police Department's reserve officers will
begin picking up teen-agers 16 and younger who violate the city's curfew.

"If we start focusing in on some of these kids, we may keep a crime from
being committed and we'll keep the kid from committing a crime," said Maj.
Randy Cook, interim police chief.

The city passed an ordinance in 1979 which prohibits minors being out on
the streets or in public places between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. This applies
to those on foot or in vehicles.

The curfew has been sporadically enforced since it was passed, Mayor Robert
Bass said, usually when there was a problem. But after a meeting last month
about increasing drug use among students, residents and city officials
thought police should start enforcing it again.

"The enforcement of a curfew goes hand in hand with the issues of alcohol
and drug abuse," Cook said. "If you remove them from the streets during the
late-night hours, they're less likely to get in trouble."

Teens think the 10:30 p.m. curfew is OK on weeknights, but they think it
should be later on weekends. They also think their parents should have a
say in what the curfew is.

"I think the curfew is fair if kids are just hanging out on the street,"
said Megan Sheets, 16. "But if you go to a 9 o'clock movie with friends and
your parents know where you are, the 10:30 curfew stinks."

Audrey Feeney, 14, agreed.

"For school nights I think it's a pretty good idea," she said. "But on the
weekends, people do have parties and stuff, and the curfew should be later."

Minors who are picked up for curfew violations will be taken to the police
station, where officers will call their parents to come pick them up. If a
parent, guardian or other adult cannot be found, the child will be taken to
the Harrison County Family Shelter.

Repeat offenders could find themselves under house arrest, said Gerald
Watson, the Child in Need of Supervision counselor for Harrison County
Youth Court.

The curfew law will be in effect seven days a week, Cook said, with no
exceptions for weekends or holidays. He also said it didn't matter if
parents give their children a later curfew.

"If they want to change the law," Cook said, "they'll have to go to the
Board of Aldermen."