(A) Finding and purpose.
(1) The City Council hereby finds there has been a significant breakdown in the supervision and guidance normally provided by certain parents for juveniles or minors under 18 years of age which has resulted in juveniles or minors being involved in a wide range of unacceptable behavior including vandalism, noisy and rowdy behavior, breaking and entering, public drinking of alcoholic beverages and littering, harassment of residents, and more serious violent crimes.
(2) The City Council further finds that the offensive activities of the juveniles or minors are not easily controlled by existing laws and ordinances because the activities are concealed whenever police officers are present and that the establishment of reasonable curfew regulations will enable the community and the city to better control the free and unobstructed access to the sidewalks, streets, and public places by the majority of residents and will enable the police to act reasonably and fairly to prevent the violation of laws and ordinances by juveniles or minors.
(3) The City Council further finds and has determined that a new and different curfew ordinance will meet a very real local need and that curfew ordinances in other communities have been a factor in minimizing juvenile or minor delinquency. A curfew in the city is particularly appropriate in view of the basic residential nature of the community and the sense of the community that there is a proper time for the cessation of outdoor activities of juveniles or minors. That this attitude of the community is reflected in the curfew hours declared by this section, which takes into consideration the danger hours of nocturnal crime.
(4) The City Council further finds and has determined that the city is basically a family community and that parental responsibility for the whereabouts of children is the accepted norm of a substantial majority of the community. Legal sanctions to enforce such responsibility have had demonstrated effectiveness in many communities over the years. The City Council has determined that as parental control increases there is a likelihood that juvenile or minor delinquency will decrease, that there is a need for nocturnal curfew for juveniles or minors in the City of Madison, and that the establishment of a curfew applicable to juveniles or minors will reinforce the primary authority and responsibility of parents and guardians over juveniles or minors in their care and custody.
(B) Definitions. For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ACCOMPANIED. To go along with or be associated with under individualized supervision.
ADULT. Any person 18 years of age or older.
ADULT SPONSORED. Adult persons underwrite or promote an activity and the adult persons take responsibility for the juvenile or minor.
ADULT SUPERVISED. Adult persons are present at the activity and the adult persons take full responsibility for the juvenile or minor.
DIRECT ROUTE. The shortest path of travel through a public place to reach a final destination, without any detour or stop.
EMERGENCY ERRAND. An unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action. The term includes, but is not limited to, a fire, a natural disaster, an automobile accident, or any similar situation requiring immediate action to prevent serious bodily injury or loss of life.
ESTABLISHMENT. Any privately owned place of business operated for a profit to which the public is invited, including but not limited to any place of amusement or entertainment.
GUARDIAN. A person who, under court order, is the guardian of the person of a juvenile or minor or a public or the person of a juvenile or minor or a public or private agency with whom a juvenile or minor has been placed by a court.
IN LOCO PARENTIS. A person who stands in place of or acts instead of a parent or is charged, factitiously, with parent’s rights, duties, and responsibilities.
JUVENILE. Any person under the age of 18 or, in equivalence phrasing, any person 17 years of age or less.
LOCO PARENTIS. See IN LOCO PARENTIS.
MINOR. See JUVENILE.
OPERATOR. Any individual, firm, association, partnership, or corporation operating, managing, or conducting any establishment. The term includes the members or partners of an association or partnership and the officers of a corporation.
PARENT. A person who is a natural parent, adoptive parent, step-parent, or surrogate parent of another person.
PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE. Evidence that, in the judgment of the law, is sufficient to establish a given fact, or the group or chain of facts, constituting the city’s claim and, if not rebutted or contradicted, is sufficient to sustain a judgment in favor of the issue(s) which it supports.
PUBLIC. Relating to or affecting the whole people of the city, state, or whole community and not limited or restricted to any particular class of the community.
PUBLIC PLACE. Any place to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, highways, vacant lots, common areas of schools, parks, playgrounds, parking lots, public buildings, public housing developments, hospitals, apartment houses, motels, hotels, office buildings, transport facilities, shops, shopping centers or plazas, places of amusement or entertainment, and similar areas that are open to the use of the public.
REMAIN. Means to stay behind, to tarry, and to stay unnecessarily upon the streets, including the congregating of groups (or of interacting juveniles or minors) totaling three or more persons in which any juvenile or minor involved would not be using the streets for ordinary or serious purposes such as passage or going home. To clarify that, numerous exceptions are expressly defined in this section so that this is not a mere prohibition of presence of juveniles or minors. More and more exceptions become available with increasing years and advancing maturity as appropriate in the interest of reasonable regulations.
SERIOUS BODILY INJURY. Bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.
SIDEWALK. That portion of a street between the curb lines, or the lateral lines of a roadway, and the adjacent property lines intended for pedestrian travel in the city, including any grass plots or other grounds found within such portion of a street, or the walkways for pedestrian travel in a public place.
STREET. The entire width between the boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel in the city. The term street applies irrespective of what it is called or formerly named, whether alley, avenue, court, road, or otherwise. The term street shall also include driveways for vehicular travel in a public place.
SURROGATE PARENT. A person other than a parent who stands in loco parentis to the child by virtue of his or her voluntary assumption of parental rights and responsibilities or is appointed by a juvenile court as a child’s advocate in the educational decision-making process in place of the child’s natural parents or guardian.
TIME OF NIGHT. The prevailing standard of time generally observed at that hour by the public in the city, prima facie the time then observed in the City Police Station.
YEARS OF AGE. Continues from one birthday, such as the seventeenth to (but not including the day of) the next, such as the eighteenth birthday, making it clear that 17 or less years of age be treated as equivalent to the phrase “under 18 years of age.”
(C) Curfew. It shall be unlawful for any juvenile or minor to be or remain in or upon the sidewalks, streets or public places within the city at night during the period ending at 5 a.m. and beginning at 12 midnight on Friday and Saturday nights, and at 10 p.m. on all other nights.
(D) Exceptions.
(1) In the following exceptional cases a juvenile or minor in or upon the sidewalks, streets, or public places within the city during the nocturnal hours prescribed for juveniles or minors in division (C) above shall not, however, be considered in violation of this section:
(a) When accompanied by a parent of such juvenile or minor;
(b) When accompanied by an adult, at least 21 years of age who is not the parent, and who is authorized by a parent of such juvenile or minor to take the parent’s place in accompanying the juvenile or minor for a designated period of time and purpose within a specified area;
(c) When exercising First Amendment rights protected by the United States Constitution, such as the free exercise of religion or freedom of speech;
(d) When engaging in the duties of bona fide employment or traveling directly, without undue delay or detour, from home to the place of employment or from the place of employment to the home;
(e) When involved in an emergency;
(f) When attending an official school, religious, or recreational activity supervised by adults and sponsored by the city, a public or private school, a civic organization, a religious organization or another similar entity that takes responsibility for the juvenile or minor, or going to or returning home from, without any detour or stop, an official school, religious, or other recreational activity supervised by adults and sponsored by the city, a public or private school, a civic organization, a religious organization or another similar entity that takes responsibility for the juvenile or minor; or
(g) When married, been married, or had the disabilities of minority removed in accordance with state law.
(2) It is a defense for the owner, operator, or employee of an establishment to prosecution under division (F) and division (G) below that the owner, operator, or employee of an establishment promptly notified the Police Department that a juvenile or minor was present on the premises of the establishment during curfew hours and refused to leave.
(E) Responsibility of parent.
(1) It shall be unlawful for any parent, guardian, or other person having the lawful care, custody, and control of any juvenile or minor to allow or permit such juvenile or minor to violate the curfew hours established by division (C). The fact that prior to the present offense by such juvenile or minor a parent of such juvenile or minor was informed by a police officer of the city of a separate violation of this section by such juvenile or minor which occurred within one year next preceding the present offense, shall be prima facie evidence that such parent allowed or permitted the present violation. Any parent who shall have made a missing person notification to the Police Department shall not be considered to have allowed or permitted any person under the age of 18 years to violate this section.
(2) This section is intended to hold a neglectful or careless parent of a juvenile or minor responsible. It shall be no defense that a parent was indifferent to the activities or conduct or whereabouts of such juvenile or minor.
(F) Responsibility of operators. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or organization operating or in charge of any establishment or other place of business to permit any juvenile or minor to loiter, loaf or idle in such place of business during the curfew hours established by division (C), except when accompanied by a parent or other adult person having the care, custody and control of such juvenile or minor as provided by this section. Whenever the owner or person in charge or in control of any establishment or other place of business during the hours prohibited by and in violation of division (C) shall find juveniles or minors loitering, loafing or idling in such place of business, he or she shall immediately order such juvenile or minor to leave and if such juvenile or minor refuses to leave the place of business, the operator shall immediately notify the Police Department and inform them of the violation.
(G) Responsibility of hotels and the like. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation operating a hotel, motel, lodging or rooming house, or any agent or servant or employee of such person, firm or corporation operating a hotel, motel, lodging or rooming house, to permit any juvenile or minor to visit, loiter, idle, wander or stroll in any portion of such hotel, motel, lodging or rooming house during the curfew hours established by division (C), except when accompanied by a parent or other adult person having the care, custody and control of such juvenile or minor as provided by this section.
(H) Enforcement procedures.
(1) If a police officer reasonably believes that a juvenile or minor is in or upon any sidewalk, street, or public place in violation of this section and before taking any enforcement action under this section, the police officer shall notify the juvenile or minor that he or she is in violation of this section and shall require the juvenile or minor to provide his or her name, age, address, telephone number, how to contact his or her parent, and the juvenile or minor’s reason for being in or upon the sidewalk, street, or public place.
(2) In determining the age of the juvenile or minor, in the absence of convincing evidence, a police officer shall use his or her best judgment in determining age.
(3) Every police officer while on duty is hereby authorized to detain any juvenile or minor violating this section, but shall immediately upon taking custody of the juvenile or minor notify the parent of the juvenile or minor. The person so notified shall, as soon as reasonably possible thereafter, report to the Police Department for the purpose of taking custody of the juvenile or minor and shall sign a document indicating that such parent is taking custody of such juvenile or minor. If the parent cannot be notified or if no response is received from the parent within a reasonable period of time, the Police Department shall take whatever action is deemed necessary in the best interest of the juvenile or minor.
(4) In lieu of issuing a citation or making an arrest of a juvenile or minor in violation of this section, a police officer may contact a parent of the juvenile or minor and request that the parent either take the juvenile or minor home or make arrangements for a person over 18 years of age to take the juvenile or minor home.
(5) In the case of a violation of this section by a juvenile or minor, the police officer shall by certified mail or direct service send or deliver to a parent written notice of the curfew violation with a warning that any subsequent violation within one year of the date of the violation will result in full enforcement of this section, including enforcement of parental responsibility and of applicable penalties.
(6) If it shall appear that any juvenile or minor taken into custody for a violation of this section is growing up in mendicancy or vagrancy, or is incorrigible, for lack of a proper parental care or has no home, proper proceedings shall be taken by the Police Department to have such juvenile or minor placed in the care of a state institution as provided by law.
(I) Penalty. Any person, firm, corporation, or entity violating any provision of this section shall be fined not less than $50 nor more than $750 for each offense, and a separate offense shall be deemed committed on each day during or on which a violation occurs or continues.
(Ord. 1316, passed 7-16-1996)
Cross-reference:
Chouteau Island curfew, see § 96.04
Hours parks, playgrounds, ball diamonds, Fire Station Recreation Are, and other recreation areas open to the public, see § 96.03