(A) Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
MINOR. Any person under the age of 18 or, in equivalent phrasing often herein employed, any person 17 or less years of age.
PARENT. Any person having legal custody of a minor:
(a) As a natural or adoptive parent;
(b) As a legal guardian;
(c) As a person who stands in loco parentis; and
(d) As a person to whom legal custody has been given by order of the court.
REMAIN. To stay behind, to tarry and to stay unnecessarily upon the streets, including the congregating of groups or of interacting minors, totaling four or more persons in which any minor involved would not be using the streets for ordinary or serious purposes such as mere passage or going home.
STREET. A way or place, of whatever nature, open to the use of the public as a matter of right for purposes of vehicular travel or in the case of a sidewalk thereof, for pedestrian travel. STREET includes the legal right-of-way, including, but not limited to, the traffic lanes, the curb, the sidewalks, whether paved or unpaved, and any grass plots or other grounds found within the legal right-of-way of a street. STREET applies irrespective of what it be called or formally named, whether alley, avenue, court, road or otherwise.
TIME OF NIGHT. Based in the prevailing standard of time, whether Eastern Standard Time or Eastern Daylight Saving Time, generally observed at that hour by the public in the municipality, prima facie the time then observed in the municipal administrative offices and police station.
YEAR 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 is herein treated as equivalent to the phrase “under 18 years of age.” Similarly, for example, 11 or less years of age means “under 12 years of age.”
(B) Curfew hours. No person 17 or less years of age shall be or remain in or upon the streets within the municipality at night during the period ending at 6:00 a.m. and beginning at 9:00 p.m.
(C) Exceptions. In the following exceptional cases, a minor on a street during the nocturnal hours for which division (B) of this section is intended to provide the maximum limits of regulation shall not be considered in violation of this section:
(1) When accompanied by a parent of such minor;
(2) When accompanied by an adult authorized by a parent of such minor to take the parent’s place in accompanying the minor for a designated period of time and purpose within a specified area;
(3) When exercising First Amendment rights protected by the U.S. Constitution, such as the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and the right of assembly. Such minor shall evidence the bona fide of such exercise by delivering the communications center personnel, at the municipal building, where and by whom high priority messages to the Mayor are regularly received, written communication signed by such minor and countersigned if practicable by a parent of such minor with his or her home address and telephone number, addressed to the Mayor specifying when, where and in what matter the minor will be on the streets at night, during the hours when this section is otherwise applicable to the minor, in the exercise of a First Amendment right specified in such communication;
(4) In case of reasonable necessity, but only after such minor’s parent has communicated to the police station personnel the facts establishing such reasonable such reasonable necessity relating to specified streets at a designated time for a described purpose, including points of origin and destination. A copy of such communication, or of the police record thereof, duly certified by the Chief of Police to be correct, with an appropriate notification of the time it was received and of the names and addresses of such parent and minor, shall be admissible evidence;
(5) When the minor is on the sidewalk of the place where such minor resides, or on the sidewalk of either next-door neighbor not communicating an objection to the police officer;
(6) When returning home by a direct route from and within 30 minutes of the termination of a school activity, or an activity of a religious or other voluntary association, of which prior notice, indicating the place and probable time of termination, has been given in writing to, and duly filed for immediate reference by, the Chief of Police or the officer assigned by him on duty at the police station;
(7) (a) When authorized by special permit from the Mayor carried on the person of the minor thus authorized, when necessary nighttime activities of a minor may be inadequately provided for by other provisions of this section, then recourse may be had to the Mayor either for a regulation as provided in (C)(8) of this section or for a special permit a the circumstances warrant. Upon the Mayor’s finding of necessity for the use of the streets to the extent warranted by a written application, signed by a minor and by a parent of such minor, if feasible, stating:
1. The name, age and address of such minor;
2. The name, address and telephone number of a parent thereof;
3. The height, weight, sex, color of eyes and hair and other physical characteristics of such minor;
4. The necessity which requires such minor to remain upon the streets during the curfew hours otherwise applicable; and
5. The street or route and the beginning and ending of the period of time involved by date and hour.
(b) The Mayor may grant a permit in writing for the use by the minor of those streets at such hours as in the Mayor’s opinion may reasonably be necessary. In an emergency, this may be handled by telephone, or other effective communication, with a corresponding recording made contemporaneously, either to the Mayor, or if unavailable, to the police officer authorized by the Mayor to act on his or her behalf in an emergency, at the police station.
(8) When authorized by regulation issued by the Mayor, in other similar cases of reasonable necessity, similarly handed but adapted to necessary nighttime activities of more minors than can readily be dealt with on an individual special perrnit basis. Normally such regulation by the Mayor permitting use of the streets should be issued sufficiently in advance to permit appropriate publicity through news media and through other agencies such as the schools, and shall define the activity, the scope of the use of the streets permitted, the period of time involved not to extend more than 30 minutes beyond the time for termination of such activity and the reason for finding that such regulation is reasonably necessary and is consistent with the purposes of this section;
(9) When the minor carries a certified card of employment, renewable each calendar month when the current facts so warrant, dated or reissued not more than 45 days previously, signed by the Chief of Police and briefly identifying the minor, the addresses of his or her home and place of employment and his or her hours of employment;
(10) When the minor is, with parental consent, in a motor vehicle. This contemplates normal travel;
(11) When the minor is 17 years of age, if and when the Mayor has determined, by formal rule first reported to Council, spread upon its minutes and so reported in the press, finding the facts as to the extent of juvenile delinquency in such age group permitting such rule, currently, in the best interests of such minors and of the municipality, then the Mayor by such formal rule, covering a period of time designated therein or until recision thereof not exceeding one year from the date thereof, may take appropriate action excepting designated minors, minors in a defined group or area or all minors, as the current facts may warrant, 17 years of age at that date or attaining 17 years of age during the period that such formal rule is and remains in effect; and
(12) Each of the foregoing exceptions, and their several limitations, such as provisions for notification, are severable, and additional, also severable, exceptions broadening with the progress toward maturity of minors enrolled respectively in elementary, junior high and high schools, will be considered by Council as government associations, school personnel, citizens, associations, ward, precinct and neighborhood spokesperson, parents, officers and persons in authority concerned positively with minors as well as with juvenile delinquency.
(D) Parental responsibility. No parent having legal custody of a minor shall knowingly permit or by inefficient control allow such minor to be or remain in any street under circumstances not constituting an exception to, or otherwise beyond the scope of this section. KNOWINGLY includes knowledge which a parent should reasonably be expected to have concerning the whereabouts of a minor in that parent’s legal custody. It is intended to continue to keep neglectful or careless parents up to a reasonable community standard of parental responsibility through an objective test. It shall, a fortiori, be no defense that a parent was completely indifferent to the activities or conduct or whereabouts of such minor.
(E) Police procedures. A police officer, upon finding or having attention called to any minor on the streets in prima facie violation of this section, normally shall take the minor to the police station, where a parent shall immediately be notified to come for such minor, whereupon they shall be interrogated. This is intended to permit ascertainment, under constitutional safeguards, of relevant facts, and to centralize responsibility in the officer there and then on duty for accurate, effective, fair, impartial and uniform enforcement and recording, thus making available experienced supervisory personnel, the best of facilities and access to information and records. In the absence of convincing evidence such as a birth certificate, a police officer on the street shall in the first instance, use his or her best judgment in determining age.
(1) Police procedures shall constantly be refined in the light of experience and may provide, inter alia, that the police officer may deliver to a parent thereof a minor under appropriate circumstances, for example, a minor of tender age near home whose identity and address may readily be ascertained or are known.
(2) In an event, such police officer shall within 24 hours file a written report with the Chief of Police, or shall participate to the extent of the information for which he or she is responsible in the preparation by himself or herself and with the officer involved in such case, in the filing of such report within 24 hours.
(3) When a parent, immediately called, has come to take charge of the minor, and the appropriate information has been recorded, the minor shall be released to the custody of such parent. If the parent cannot be located, or fails to take charge of the minor, then the minor shall be released to the juvenile authorities, except to the extent that in accordance with police regulations, approved in advance by juvenile authorities, the minor may temporarily be entrusted to a relative, neighbor or other person who will on behalf of a parent assume the responsibility of caring for the minor pending the availability or arrival of a parent.
(4) In the case of a first violation by a minor, the Chief of Police shall, by certified mail, send to a parent written notice of the violation with a warning that any subsequent violation will result in full enforcement of this section, including enforcement of parental responsibility and of applicable penalties.
(F) Violations.
(1) If after the warning notice pursuant to division (E) above or a first violation by a minor, a parent violates division (D) above in connection with a second violation by such minor, this shall be treated as a first offense by the parent. For such first parental offense, a parent shall be guilty of a minor misdemeanor and for each subsequent offense a parent shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth
degree.
(2) Any minor who violates any provision of this section more than three times shall be dealt with in accordance with juvenile court law and procedure.
(3) A like procedure, before the juvenile authorities, shall be followed in any case where the provisions of this chapter cannot be made effective by the imposition of other penalties under this section.