Politics
Panel Votes 10-7 to Advance CPD’s ‘Snap Curfews’ Plan to Stop Teen Gatherings
Video: The WTTW News Spotlight Politics team on snap curfews and more of the day’s top stories. (Produced by Paul Caine)
A key City Council committee voted 10-7 on Tuesday to advance a proposal to allow Chicago Police Department officials to preemptively impose a curfew anywhere in the city and begin enforcing it with just 30 minutes notice in an effort to stop large teen gatherings.
Hours before the close vote, Mayor Brandon Johnson again questioned whether the measure is constitutional. 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.
A final vote by the full City Council is set for Wednesday. If the measure takes effect, it would reshape Chicago’s curfew law and could set a template for other cities struggling with public safety challenges.
The measure that narrowly won the endorsement of the Public Safety Committee was revised shortly before Tuesday’s meeting to give Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling the power to unilaterally declare a snap curfew.
The original version of the ordinance considered April 30 by the committee required Snelling and Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Garien Gatewood to have “jointly determined that there’s probable cause to believe that a mass gathering will occur.” The ordinance sets no limits on how large an area could be covered by the “snap curfew.”
The version of the ordinance approved by the committee would require Snelling only to “consult” Gatewood.
That change prompted Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward) to drop his support of the measure that he had co-sponsored with Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) and Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward).
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.
A close ally of Johnson and an influential member of the City Council’s Black Caucus, Ervin said that provision would ensure proper checks and balances would be in place before a snap curfew is declared.
A spokesperson for Johnson did not respond to a request for comment from WTTW News about the revised ordinance. If the measure passes the City Council, Johnson could veto it. It would take 34 votes for the City Council to override that veto.
Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez (25th Ward) and other progressive members of the City Council said the ordinance would do nothing to prevent the gatherings from taking place and serve only to criminalize Black and Latino teens and make them feel unwelcome downtown and along the lakefront.
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.”
Johnson and Gatewood have said their goal is to prevent the gatherings from happening at all and have touted their efforts to provide other activities for teens and young adults.
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.
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]
