Charlotte police chief proposes expanding curfew to combat 'teen takeovers'
The chief warned that the trend's consequences "may become fatal."
In an attempt to curb violence linked to a nationwide trend of "teen takeovers," Charlotte, North Carolina, police are proposing modifying a citywide youth curfew.
Chief Estella Patterson of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department proposed increasing the age limit and hours of an existing youth curfew.
During a city council hearing Monday night, Patterson detailed multiple incidents of teen takeovers that have occurred in the city over the past two months, which she said led to shootings, fights and chaos that shut down businesses.
"I am very concerned that if we don't get a handle on these events and what's going on, the consequences may become fatal," Patterson told city council members.
Teen takeovers are when large groups of teenagers, sometimes numbering in the thousands, are drawn to specific areas of a city mostly through social media posts, and usually result in chaos and arrests, authorities said.
Patterson said that on June 14, a teen takeover occurred in Charlotte's Romare Bearden Park, resulting in the shooting of two teens, ages 15 and 18, and the arrests of three alleged shooters, two 16-year-olds and a 15-year-old.
"In that incident, we saw a clear example of victims and victimization of our youth," Patterson told the city council.
The chief said the Romare Bearden Park incident came just days after 200 to 300 teenagers congregated in the University City neighborhood of Charlotte, creating disorder and leaving several officers assaulted while trying to break up fights. Patterson said 12 juveniles were arrested, and a firearm was confiscated from a 16-year-old.
She said that on July 4, her police department deployed more than 200 officers to a "small geographic location" of the city after hearing of a teen takeover in the works. She said no violence was reported in that instance, but she added her police department cannot sustain that type of mass enforcement.
"We cannot have that kind of manpower, personnel power, every weekend or whenever there's a possible pop-up event pertaining to our youth," Patterson said.
Patterson proposed modifying Charlotte's existing nightly curfew by starting it at 9 p.m. for anyone under 18. Patterson said there are exceptions for youths attending school, church and sports events or any other approved after-curfew activities.
Under the city's existing curfew, juveniles under the age of 13 cannot be in a public place or business from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and for juveniles under 15, the existing curfew is 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Some council members questioned whether the curfew would punish juveniles who are not participating in teen takeover or out to cause trouble.
"We don't want to criminalize them for being teenagers. We are not creating a prison pipeline for youth of color. We're not punishing good kids for doing the right thing," Patterson told the city council. "But instead, we are proposing a tool that gives law enforcement the ability to intervene and keep our young people from being harmed or harming others."
The Charlotte City Council is expected to hold other meetings on modifying the youth curfew and is expected to vote on the issue at a future date.
During her presentation, Patterson showed a video compilation of "teen takeover" incidents in other cities across the country, including one in Raleigh, North Carolina, that drew thousands of teenagers to two locations in the area, resulting in fights and a shooting that left a victim injured.
Like Charlotte, Raleigh city officials are also mulling whether to tighten the city's existing youth curfew.
In Florida, Tampa officials are also contemplating expanding its youth curfew.
On May 8, Tampa police arrested 22 people during a teen takeover at Curtis Hixon Park that police said quickly escalated into fights and placed innocent people at risk.
In Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, proposed prosecuting parents whose children are arrested in violent teen takeovers after one occurred at local restaurant.
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