Crime & Law
As Brandon Johnson Questions Constitutionality of ‘Snap Curfew’ Plan, Supporters Push for Vote
(WTTW News)
Even as Mayor Brandon Johnson continued to question the constitutionality of a proposal to allow Chicago Police Department officials to impose a curfew anywhere in the city with just 30 minutes notice, supporters of the plan will try again Tuesday to send it to the full City Council for a final vote.
The plan, authored by Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) and backed by Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, failed to advance April 30 after five hours of fierce debate. If the measure wins the endorsement of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee at the meeting set for 1 p.m. Tuesday, a final vote could take place as soon as Wednesday.
Johnson has repeatedly said that he does not believe that expanding the city’s curfew would stop teen “trends” or “takeovers,” large gatherings organized on social media and popular among teens, from turning violent.
Police said two large gatherings of teens led to two high-profile shootings in Streeterville, a neighborhood popular with tourists and wealthy Chicagoans, in March. In the two months that Hopkins has been urging his fellow alderpeople to expand the city’s curfew laws no one has been seriously injured as a result of the gatherings. In addition, 19 people were killed in Chicago in April, the fewest murders during any April since 1962.
The measure would allow Snelling and Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Garien Gatewood to declare a three-hour curfew anywhere in the city they “have jointly determined that there’s probable cause to believe that a mass gathering will occur,” according to the proposal.
The measure would allow police to declare a curfew in the event of a gathering of 20 or more people in a way “likely to result in substantial harm to the safety of the community or others, or substantial damage to property, or substantial injuries to a person.”
Thirty minutes later, police officers can start enforcing the curfew against anyone younger than 18, according to the proposal that sets no limits on how large an area could be covered by the “snap curfew.”
Critics of the proposal contend it would allow police to hold teens criminally responsible without any evidence they violated the law, since this ordinance would give the city the authority to take action before a gathering spiraled out of control and created a public safety threat.
“I’ve said from the very beginning, the constitutionality around this discussion is something that I have expressed my trepidation,” Johnson told reporters May 6.
Chicago Police Department Chief of Patrol Jon Heim repeatedly assured members of the Public Safety Committee during the April 30 meeting that CPD would use the expanded curfew “constitutionally.”
Heim said CPD’s widely praised handling of the gatherings outside the Democratic National Convention in August and the progress the department has made in complying with the consent decree — the federal court order requiring CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers — should reassure alderpeople that CPD will use the new power appropriately.
CPD has fully complied with 16% of the consent decree, according to the latest report from the independent monitoring team charged with keeping tabs on the city’s progress.
The rules governing large gatherings were crafted after months of negotiations with the coalition that sued to force the city into the consent decree after objections the original version was unconstitutional.
That policy outlines when and for what reason CPD can declare a gathering unlawful and order people to disperse or face legal consequences. The policy requires that “three or more persons are committing acts of disorderly conduct that are likely to cause substantial harm in the immediate vicinity” before a dispersal order is issued.
Gatewood told reporters May 6 the ordinance’s language was “still being tweaked,” adding that the goal was to prevent the gatherings from happening.
Read the current proposal here.
“If we know there is a propensity for violence in some instances, if we’ve seen some of the same folks who have hosted these and they have led into violence, we need to do whatever we can to get in front of it to stop violence from happening,” Gatewood said. “Our goal is always: be proactive, protect people and be proactive.”
If the measure is approved by the City Council and withstands an all-but-certain legal challenge, it would reshape Chicago’s curfew law and set a template for other cities struggling with public safety challenges.
Curfew Most Often Enforced on South Side: Data
Between 1992 and 2022, the city’s curfew allowed teens to stay out until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and only covered those 16 and younger.
Despite his frequent criticism of curfews as a law-enforcement tool, Johnson has not asked the City Council to reverse changes introduced by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and approved by the City Council that moved up the curfew to 10 p.m. seven days a week and applies to everyone 17 years old and younger.
Those new rules were only enforced by police 12 times between May 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2024, according to data obtained by WTTW News.
In all, the Chicago Police Department documented 276 violations of the city’s curfew ordinance between May 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2024, according to documents obtained by WTTW News through the Freedom of Information Act.
In addition, Chicago police issued 75 citations for curfew violations to the parents of teens who had violated the curfew three times in the past year or were also arrested on suspicion of committing a crime, records show.
During the summer of 2024, the number of curfew violations documented by CPD dropped approximately 35%, as compared with the summer of 2023, records show.
But CPD issued 20% more curfew violations from May 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2024, Johnson’s first year in office, as compared with the same period in 2022, Lightfoot’s final year in office, records show.
During the summer of 2023 and 2024, the police documented the highest number of curfew violations in the Gresham (6th) Police District, which also includes Chicago Lawn, Chatham, Burnside, Greater Grand Crossing, West Englewood, Englewood, Roseland, Washington Heights, Ashburn and Auburn.
In 2023, nearly one in five curfew violations in Chicago were issued in the Gresham Police District, records show. In 2024, the Gresham District accounted for 12% of all curfew violations, nearly double the number of violations issued in the Central (1st) Police District, which includes downtown and the central business district, records show.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
