Cincinnati With the opening of its curfew center on Friday night, the City of Cincinnati will shortly test its curfew enforcement tactics.
This serves as a reminder of the updated curfew policy:
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City-wide curfew:
11 p.m. to 5 a.m. for all unaccompanied minors under the age of 18. -
Special curfew district:
9 p.m. to 5 a.m. with some exceptions for all unaccompanied minors under the age of 18.
As seen in the picture below, the Central Business District and Over-the-Rhine are included in the special curfew district:
According to Mayor Aftab Pureval, the city’s 311 employees or the Collaborative Agreement’s problem-solving personnel would issue a warning to any youngsters who disobey the curfew.
The juvenile may be taken by CPD officers to Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses’ recently established curfew center, where workers will take over the task of getting in touch with the child’s parent or guardian if they refuse to comply. In addition to food and water, the facility will provide a secure waiting area until their parent or guardian can be reached.
According to Pureval, children who are unable to return home or who are homeless will be brought to Lighthouse Youth & Family Services.
A spokesman for the Cincinnati Police Department stated in a statement on Friday that voluntary compliance will always come first.
“If we all contribute to keeping our young people safe and off the streets during curfew hours, we can achieve that aim. We can have a long-lasting effect if we work together,” he remarked.
A direct appeal to parents and guardians was also made by the CPD spokeswoman.
“We strongly advise you to use this time to speak candidly and openly with your kids. Their safety is the sole reason this policy is in place,” he stated. “If your child is under the age of 18, they must be in a safe environment by 11 p.m. and by 9 p.m. if they are within the newly designated Special Curfew District.”
Watch and hear from a city that has implemented a similar curfew enforcement technique.
A similar project was recently launched in Indianapolis, more than 100 miles distant, by the city’s police force in collaboration with neighborhood nonprofits. The safe area has been called a reunification center rather than a curfew facility.
“The general idea, or the remark, I suppose, was, ‘Let’s not make this punitive,'” stated Kareem Hines, the founder of the nonprofit organization New B.O.Y. in Indianapolis. “We refer to it as connection before repair in my program. Therefore, either with the young person or with the family, something has to be corrected.
The approach, which was introduced for the WNBA All-Star Weekend, operated as follows:
- Officers give a 30 and a 15-minute warning through the PA systems of patrol cars before curfew goes into effect.
- Those who fail to comply are taken to a designated safe location.
- Upon arrival, officers attempt to contact parents while community partners offer resources. If they can’t reach anyone, the kids are taken to the juvenile detention center for a curfew violation as a last resort.
As far as Hines is concerned, the initiative was only started for that weekend. He claimed that although it did not witness many curfew breakers, it was successful.
“Just having the food, the drinks created a sort of a nurturing environment for the kids,” Hines stated. “I’m just hopeful that the leadership and whoever in Cincinnati is facilitating these [curfew] centers, uses that model of connection before correction.”
To grow the effort, Hines and the other charities are now working with partners from the city of Indianapolis.
“So what we are now charged with is duplicating that reunification center and spreading it across the city, because (what) we don’t want to do is just look like we’re enforcing curfew in our downtown area; there are many other areas in the city where curfew needs to be enforced,” Hines explained.
