Publisher's Note: This Section has been AMENDED by new legislation (Ord. 24-11-20-001, adopted 11-20-2024). The text of the amendment will be incorporated below when the ordinance is codified. (a) Purpose. The purpose of this section is to protect juveniles from victimization and exposure to criminal activity by establishing a curfew for persons under the age of eighteen (18) years in the Town of Knightdale. The Youth Protection Ordinance is intended to promote the health, safety and welfare of both juveniles and adults by creating an environment providing better protection and security for all concerned. The purpose is also to define the duties of parents or guardians and operators of business establishments and protect minors from improper influences and criminal activity that occurs after the curfew hour.
(b) Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings:
Authorized adult: Parent, guardian or someone over the eighteen (18) years of age authorized to accompany the juvenile for a designated period of time.
Emergency: An unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action. The term includes, but is not limited to, a fire, natural disaster, or automobile accident, or any situation requiring immediate action to prevent serious bodily injury or loss of life.
Establishment: Any privately owned place of business operated to which the public has access or is invited including but not limited to any place of amusement or entertainment.
Juvenile: Any person under the age of eighteen (18) years who is not married or been emancipated, or in equivalent phrasing, any person sixteen (16) or less years of age.
Owner/operator: any individual, firm, association, partnership or corporation, operating, managing or conducting any establishment, including the employees, members or partners of an association or partnership and the officers of a corporation.
Parent: Any person having legal custody of a juvenile (i) as a natural or adoptive parent, (ii) as a legal guardian, (iii) as a person who stands in loco parentis, or (iv) as a person to whom legal custody has been given by court order.
Public place: Any place that is generally open to and used by the public or a substantial group of the public, whether it be publicly-owned or privately-owned, including but not limited to, streets, highways, alleys, rights-of-way, public vehicular areas and parking lots, shops, restaurants, convenience stores, schools and school grounds, places of business and amusement, playgrounds, parks, church grounds, similar areas that are open to the public, and other common areas open to or accessible to the public.
Remain: To stay behind, to tarry and to stay unnecessarily in a public place including the congregating of groups (or of interacting minors) totaling four (4) or more persons in which any juvenile involved would not be using the streets for ordinary or serious purposes such as mere passage or going home, or to fail to leave the premises of an establishment when requested to do so by a police officer or the operator of an establishment.
Restricted hours: The time of night referred to herein is based upon the prevailing standard of time, whether Eastern Standard Time or Eastern Daylight Saving Time, generally observed at that hour by the public in the Town of Knightdale, North Carolina. Restricted hours will mean: 9:00 p.m. on any evening until 6:00 a.m. of the following day.
(c) Offenses. Except as provided by subsection (d), the following offenses constitute a violation of this section:
(1) A person under the age of eighteen (18) years shall be in violation of this section if he or she shall remain at any time in a group of four (4) or more individuals in or upon any public place or establishment within the Town.
(2) It shall be a violation of this section for any person under the age of eighteen (18) years to be or remain in or upon any public place or establishment within the Town during the restricted hours.
(3) It shall be a violation of this section for any person eighteen (18) years or older to aid or abet a juvenile in the violation of subsection (c)(1) or (c)(2).
(4) A parent of a juvenile shall be in violation of this section if he or she knowingly permits, and/or by inadequate supervision, allows the juvenile to remain on the premises of any establishment or in any public place within the Town during the restricted hours. The term "knowingly" includes knowledge that a parent should reasonably be expected to have concerning the whereabouts of a juvenile in that parent's legal custody. This requirement is intended to hold a neglectful or careless parent up to a reasonable community standard of parental responsibility through an objective test. It shall, therefore, be no defense that a parent was completely indifferent to the activities or conduct or whereabouts of such juvenile.
(5) It shall be a violation of this section for a parent of a juvenile to refuse to take custody of the juvenile during the restricted hours.
(6) The owners, operator, or any employee of an establishment shall be in violation of this section if he or she knowingly allows a juvenile to remain upon the premises of the establishment during the restricted hours. The term "knowingly" includes knowledge that an operator or employer should reasonably be expected to have concerning the patrons of an establishment.
(d) Exceptions. A juvenile shall not be in violation of this section if the juvenile is:
(1) Accompanied by a parent or adult eighteen (18) years of age, or older, authorized by the parent to supervise such juvenile.
(2) Using a direct route to or from a place of employment.
(3) In a motor vehicle with parental consent.
(4) Reacting or responding to an emergency.
(5) Attending or traveling to or from, by direct route, any school, religious or recreational activity or other organized activity which is supervised by adults that accept responsibility for the juvenile. If during restricted hours, the parent must have knowledge of the organized activity in which the juvenile is involved and the juvenile shall carry a written communication, signed by the juvenile and countersigned, if practicable, by a parent of the juvenile with their home address and telephone number and specifying when, where and in what manner the juvenile will be in a public place.
(6) Participating in or observing athletic or recreational events on public parks or public playgrounds except during restricted hours.
(7) Exercising First Amendment rights protected by the United States Constitution.
(f) Enforcement procedures.
(1) If a police officer reasonably believes that a juvenile is in violation of the ordinance the officer shall notify the juvenile that he or she is in violation of the ordinance and shall require the juvenile to provide his or her name, address and telephone number and how to contact his or her parent or guardian. In determining the age of the juvenile and in the absence of convincing evidence such as a birth certificate, a police officer shall, in the first instance of violation of the ordinance, use his or her best judgment in determining age.
(2) The police officer shall issue the juvenile a written warning that the juvenile is in violation of the Ordinance and order the juvenile to go promptly home. The Chief of Police shall send the parent or guardian of the juvenile written notice of the violation by certified mail with a warning that any subsequent violation will result in full enforcement of the ordinance, including enforcement or parental responsibility and of applicable penalties.
(3) Police procedures shall constantly be refined in the light of experience and may provide that the police officer deliver to a parent a juvenile under appropriate circumstances; for example, a juvenile of tender age, near home, whose identity and address may readily be ascertained or are known.
(4) Notwithstanding the foregoing, when: (i) a juvenile has received one (1) previous written warning for violation of this section; or (ii) a police officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the juvenile has engaged in delinquent conduct, the procedure shall then be to take the juvenile to the police station where a parent shall immediately be notified to come for the juvenile whereupon the parent and the juvenile shall be questioned. This is intended to permit ascertainment, under constitutional safeguards, of relevant facts, and to centralize responsibility in the person designated there and then on duty for an accurate, effective, fair, impartial and uniform enforcement, and recording, thus making available experienced personnel and access to information and records.
(5) When a parent immediately called, has come to take charge of the juvenile, and the appropriate information has been recorded, the juvenile shall be released to the custody of such parent. If the parent cannot be located or fails to take charge of the juvenile, then the juvenile shall be released to the juvenile authorities, except to the extent that in accordance with police regulations, approved in advance by juvenile authorities, the juvenile may temporarily be entrusted to an adult, neighbor or other person who will on behalf of a parent assume the responsibility of caring for a juvenile pending the availability or arrival of a parent.
(6) For the first violation of the ordinance by an operator of an establishment who permits a juvenile to remain on the premises, a police officer shall issue a written notice of the violation with a warning that any subsequent violation will result in full enforcement of the ordinance, including enforcement of operator responsibility and of applicable penalties.
(g) Penalties.
(1) A juvenile who violates any provision of this section is subject to being adjudicated delinquent. The Court may, in its discretion, impose any dispositional alternative(s) that are provided in the North Carolina Juvenile Code for any juvenile who is delinquent.
(2) Any person other than a juvenile who violates any provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to maximum fine and/or imprisonment in the discretion of the Court in accordance with N.C.G.S. 14-4.
(3) Civil penalty.
a. Generally. Any act constituting a violation shall subject the offender to a civil penalty to be recovered by the Town in a civil action in the nature of a debt or as otherwise provided herein if the offended fails to pay the penalty within seventy-two (72) hours from and after receipt of a citation of a violation. All violations shall be subject to a civil penalty in the amount of fifty dollars ($50.00) for the first offense and for each subsequent offense the fine shall increase by an additional one hundred dollars ($100.00).
b. Citation contents. Such violation citation shall, among other things:
1. State upon its face the amount of the penalty or the specific violation if the penalty is paid within seventy-two (72) hours from and after issuance of the citation.
2. Notify the offender that a failure to pay the penalty within the prescribed time shall subject the offender to a civil action in the nature of debt for the stated penalty plus any additional penalties, together with the cost of the action to be taxed by the Court including a reasonable attorney's fee.
3. Further provide that the offender may answer the City citation by mailing the citation and the stated penalty to the Chief of Police, Town Hall, 950 Steeple Square Court, Knightdale, North Carolina 27545.
4. That the penalty must be either paid or the failure to pay must be cleared with the Chief of Police, Town Hall, 950 Steeple Square Court, Knightdale, North Carolina 27545, within seventy-two (72) hours of the issuance of the citation. The notice shall further state that if the violation citation is not cleared within seventy-two (72) hours, Court action by the filing of a civil complaint for collection of the penalty may be taken. As used upon the violation citation, the word "cleared" shall mean either:
(i) Payment;
(ii) Arrangement for payment to be made; or
(iii) A prima facie showing to the Chief of Police that the citation was received as a result of mistake, inadvertence or excusable neglect.
c. Settlement of civil claim. The Chief of Police is authorized to accept payment in full and final settlement of the claim or claims, right or rights of action which the Town may have to enforce such penalty by civil action in the nature of debt.
d. Additional penalty. A penalty of one hundred dollars ($100.00), in addition to the one imposed for payment within seventy-two (72) hours, shall apply in those cases in which the penalties prescribed in this section have not been paid within the prescribed seventy-two (72) hour period.
(h) Severability. If any section, subsection, sentence, term or exception of this section, or any application thereof to any person or circumstance, is adjudged to be unconstitutional or invalid, such adjudication shall not be deemed applicable to any other person or circumstances. Furthermore, the Town Council declares its intent to adopt and enforce each and every section of this Ordinance [Ord. of 10-3-05] separate and independent from one another.
(Ord. No. 95-08-16-001, § 1, 8-16-95; Ord. of 5-18-05; Ord. of 10-3-05; Ord. No. 20-12-16-003, 12-16- 20)