The youth curfew law in Baltimore, which applies to children 16 and younger, went into effect in 1976, according to Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department. It runs from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and from midnight to 6 a.m. on weekends, and can include fines of up to $300.
"The purpose of a curfew isn't to give you a reason to arrest kids, it's a tool to get kids off the street," Clifford said. However, he said it was "virtually impossible to look at a crime trend anywhere and say, `Curfews had an impact here.'"
Alderman Fred Paone, an Anne Arundel County prosecutor for 30 years, will lead the council's feasibility study on a youth curfew, but he said he doubts that such a measure would be effective.
"Baltimore City, they have a curfew. And the last time I checked, [the curfew hasn't] put a dent in their crime rate. We don't want to do something just for the sake of doing something. We want to have a positive impact."
But interviews with residents - at least the adults - suggest that the city may be ready for a curfew.
"The teenagers - 16, 17, 18 [years old] - they should be in at 10:30, 11 at night," said Doris Johnson, a 51-year-old resident of Robinwood, where two homicides have occurred in a month. "That's when most of the action and drama is going on. That's when they want to do things they ain't got no business doing."
Predictably, the idea wasn't popular among children and teens. A teenage girl watching music videos at the computer lab in the Robinwood Community Center said any curfew should be "at least 12" midnight on the weekends.
"It's a waste of our time," said Untrell Price, 12, leaning against a chain-link fence of a basketball court in Bay Ridge. "We don't want to stay indoors."
One of Annapolis' private low-income developments implemented a curfew for adults and children three years ago, with private security hired to enforce it. Bay Ridge Gardens Community Association President Carol Dessasau said that having to impose such a rule was regrettable, but has been effective.
"People who go to work, come home and have dinner and take care of their children and go to bed, that curfew does not bother them," said Dessasau, who was preparing Good Friday dinners of chicken, fish, potato salad and string beans at the community center. "Those that have a problem with it, well, those are the house rules."
