Ryan Krull
Staring down rising juvenile crime rates and an unending wave of teen car thefts, Cleveland city council on Monday approved legislation to amend the city's curfew laws for the first time since 2007, when they were last modified.
The new law imposes earlier cutoff times and takes harder aim at parents and guardians, imposing stiffer penalties on them for kids caught breaking curfew, including possible fourth-degree misdemeanors, fines and community service. In addition, court-ordered "root cause analysis" that, as chief sponsor Councilman Michael Polensek detailed Monday, would seek to find out the source of the trouble.
"You want to have kids? Be responsible for them," he said to the room, in trademark fury. "Take care of them. And let's find out, when they're out late, find out what's going on in their lives, so they don't become another statistic, either in the funeral home or in jail."
The new law also stipulates earlier curfew cut-offs for Cleveland teenagers: Those 12 and under can't be out at dark; those 13 to 14 can't be out after 9:30 p.m.; those 15 to 16 have to be home by 11 p.m.; those 17 have to be in by midnight.
The new law gives leeway for kids "en route to home from work" (and vice versa), yet reaffirms the onus on the parent to take charge: they, the law says, have "a duty to prohibit the child from behaving contrary" to the updated curfew.
As Polensek referenced in August's council gathering, the curfew tightening is a clear response to an apparent crisis, one best represented by the Kia Boyz.
With steep consequence: dozens of Clevelanders have been injured or killed in car crashes due to post-theft joy rides, with teens as young as 12 behind the wheel.
One of the most alarming crashes took the life of 21-year-old Janet Reyes, WKYC reported, who was home in Old Brooklyn in August when she was killed by the teenage driver of a stolen vehicle. Three weeks later a 30-year-old man was hit and killed by a 16-year-old in a stolen Kia. It was three in the morning when he was pronounced dead.
"I don't understand how you can have a 12 and 13 year old at 3 or 4 o' clock in the middle of the night, and you don't know where your kids are?" Polensek told Council. "I want to say to the administration: We have taken the action. Now it's up to CPD to enforce the law. Enforce the curfew law in this city. Enforce the curfew law."
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