City officials have debated for months over a proposed “snap curfew” as a preventative measure to curb teen trends or gatherings, which are often referred to as takeovers.

“We had places, safe places for teens like teen clubs, also known as juice bars, that no longer exist,” said Corli Jay, community investment reporter at The TRiiBE, which has been reporting on the snap curfew in collaboration with South Side Weekly. “Also, we had malls that kids were able to go to as teenagers, but those have long gone out because of online shopping, but also because of the youth escort policies. You can’t go to malls at the weekends, at the hours after like, 5 o’clock, without a parent or an escort with you. I also know that Navy Pier has the same kind of escort policy. So these places, these teen safe places, have dwindled. And with the lack of their people, the teens lack a place to kind of meet up and that’s why they choose places like downtown.”

Chicago already has a 10 p.m. citywide curfew for teenagers, but the so-called snap curfew will give police the authority to issue a last-minute teen curfew with only 30 minutes notice.

The Chicago City Council on Wednesday passed the snap curfew ordinance by a vote of 27-22. Mayor Brandon Johnson has pledged to veto it.

“It’s actually unclear whether or not curfews keep people safer or not,” said Chima Ikoro, community engagement editor at South Side Weekly.  “And the issue was that, providing this idea of safety in one place can then create this bubble of unsafety or violence, etc., in another place. So the curfews are not actually meeting the issue at its root. And if they’re not meeting downtown, then they’re meeting somewhere else. It almost seems as if we’re trying to segregate this violence to their own neighborhoods or their own communities, and saying, like, ‘Yeah, you know, these areas are just off limits because that’s what’s most valuable to us.’ And that doesn’t actually solve the issue. … And so even with the curfew that we had before this curfew ordinance was passed, it’s not like it was being enforced on a consistent basis. And sometimes it’s even weaponized to be used in a case-by-case situation, as opposed to being a blanket.”

Click here to read reporting on snap curfews by South Side Weekly and The TRiiBE.