CMPD Chief asks city council for citywide teen curfew

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Chief supports a 9:00pm curfew for kids under 18. Chief Estella Patterson says the curfew will help police deal with the teen takeovers.

Teen takeovers have been a pain point for police. Kids pick a place to meet and sometimes cause property damage or violence. To tackle the increase in the nuisance activity, Charlotte city leaders are considering a curfew for all kids under 18 for 9pm.

“We have seen what has happened when they’re out past dark. When they’re out late into the evening and into the early morning. Nothing good can come from that,” Chief Estella Patterson, CMPD said.

Right now, kids ages 13 to 15 have an 11pm curfew and kids under 12 have a 10pm curfew. Chief Patterson says a city wide curfew would give police more power to end the teen takeovers.

“We wanna have a mechanism that when we have these team takeovers where all these young people are in these locations where you end up having shootings, property damage, we wanna be able to have a mechanism to break that up legally,” Chief Patterson said.

Some residents disagree with a citywide curfew, instead they’d rather see parents step up.

“These kids need to be well behaved. The parents need to teach the kids. They can be out anytime of the night and behave. So why keep them in the house at, at such an earlier time?” Fred Royer, Charlotte resident said.

Others say a 9pm curfew for teens is a good idea.

“I do because I think it would make the city more safer,” Krystle Bailey, Charlotte resident said.

City leaders will discuss exceptions to the curfew. Charlotte City Council will vote on the curfew in August.