Politics

Vote Blocked on Plan to Allow CPD to Declare ‘Snap Curfews’ to Stop Teen Gatherings

Seventeen members of the Chicago City Council joined together in an unprecedented show of force Wednesday to block a vote on a measure 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.

It takes just two City Council members to use a parliamentary procedure to block a vote until the City Council’s June meeting. But Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward) and Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th Ward) said 15 other members of the City Council had signed on to the letter stopping the vote.

If 17 members are firmly opposed to the proposal and eventually vote against the measure, it could still pass with 33 votes.

But it would take 34 votes for the City Council to override a mayoral veto.

Before the vote, Mayor Brandon Johnson repeatedly questioned whether the measure is constitutional and frequently 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.

After the City Council meeting, Johnson called the proposal “problematic” but declined to say whether he would veto the measure if it passes, telling reporters it was too early to make that determination.

“This ordinance, actually is the antithesis to what we built over these last couple of years, and what we don’t want is a situation where all of the efforts … to renew and build trust within communities that we don’t lose that,” Johnson said.

If the measure is approved, it would vastly expand Chicago’s curfew law and set a template for other cities struggling with public safety challenges.

The measure gives Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling the power to unilaterally declare a snap curfew.

The original version of the ordinance 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 Tuesday by the Public Safety Committee would require Snelling only to “consult” Gatewood.

Ald. Jason Ervin, second from left, speaks with Ald. Pat Dowell, center, and Ald. Brian Hopkins shortly before blocking a vote on a proposal to allow the Chicago Police Department to declare so-called snap curfews. (Heather Cherone / WTTW News)

That change prompted Ervin not just to drop his support for the measure that he had co-sponsored with Hopkins and Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) but to join the leaders of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus in trying to stop its passage.

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.

Ervin told reporters after the meeting that he would encourage Johnson to veto the ordinance if it passes during the City Council meeting on June 18.

Johnson said he is also concerned by that change.

“To give unilateral authority to one entity, I don’t see that as a effective democratic tool,” Johnson said. “That particular configuration or version of the ordinance was incredibly shortsighted.”

Hopkins told reporters he was confident that the measure would pass in June. Even though there has not been a violent mass gathering of teens since March, he warned another could occur at any time.

But Johnson said the absence of another violent teen trend since March is evidence that his administration’s approach is working and evidence that the “snap curfew” proposal is unnecessary. 

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.

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 its April 30 meeting that CPD would use the expanded curfew “constitutionally.”

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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