As Cincinnati mulls its youth curfew, data shows steady drop in enforcement over the years
The number of juveniles referred to juvenile court peaked in 2000 with 619 violations and has steadily declined ever since. In 2024, there were 79 cited curfew violations across the county.
In the eight years where jurisdiction-level data is available, Cincinnati police make up roughly a third of all curfew violations filed. Cincinnati police gave out 46 curfew violations in 2022, the most recent year the data is available.
Since its introduction in the mid-90s, Cincinnati has had a curfew for people under 16 after 10 p.m. and after midnight for ages 16 to 18, meaning that youth cannot be unaccompanied in public after those hours.
Its enforcement has ebbed and flowed over time, according to prior reporting by The Enquirer. Officers in the early 2000s used to conduct curfew sweeps that sometimes picked up over 100 youth in one night.
Why are fewer curfew violations being filed?
Enforcing the current curfew is difficult, city officials have said. During a special meeting of City Council on July 23, City Manager Sheryl Long said they're looking at ways to make it easier to enforce.
Part of the issue might be how the violations are handled in juvenile court. Prior to 2022, a curfew violation was heard unofficially and considered an "unruly charge" in the eyes of the court, according to Hamilton County Juvenile Court spokeswoman Kelly Leon.
"If the same child had a second curfew violation, he or she was in violation of the court order not to violate curfew and then the court could hear the case officially," Leon said.
By 2022, Leon said a nationwide change pushed back on criminally charging minors for repeat violations of ordinances that aren't against the law for adults.
If the curfew begins being enforced again, council members stressed throughout the meeting July 23 it would not be about arresting children.
When asked during the City Council meeting whether children in violation of the curfew would be charged with a crime, Long said she didn't have the answer to that yet and is working with the legal department.
Part of Long's plan includes reintroducing curfew centers where the city could take minors who are out too late. They would stay there until their parents could come and get them.
Curfew centers are not a new idea
Cincinnati had curfew centers back in the 1990s, according to Enquirer reporting at the time. After the initially contentious plan in 1994 to establish a citywide youth curfew, part of the plan involved extending hours at recreation centers in Evanston and Price Hill. Curfew violators were brought to the centers, staffed by recreation workers and a Cincinnati police officer.
Criticism by city police in the years that followed over the costly monitoring of the curfew centers – and that fewer than 4% of juveniles picked up on curfew violations were brought there – led them to be closed.
Years later, after an uptick in gun violence alarmed residents in the summer of 2015, the idea resurfaced. Then-Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell proposed a plan that involved once again enforcing the city's youth curfew and opening curfew centers in Districts 4 and 5. Any teenager breaking the curfew Thursday through Sunday would have been brought to one of the curfew centers, where parents would be called to pick them up.
Weeks later, the plan was revised, cutting out the curfew centers. The city manager at the time Harry Black said communities were uncomfortable with the idea.
Long said the newly proposed curfew centers wouldn't be at recreation centers, since she doesn't want children to have a negative association with them.
During discussion about the curfew at the city council meeting, Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney said when the curfew has been enforced in the past, residents have complained that it hasn't been enforced evenly in all neighborhoods.
"If we do it, we'll have to do it consistently and fairly across all neighborhoods," she said.
Enquirer reporter Scott Wartman contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati-area youth curfews have been enforced less, data shows
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