Teenagers 17 and younger will have to leave the downtown area by 9 p.m. or be accompanied by a parent or guardian under a summer curfew St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer announced Thursday. The curfew takes effect Friday and runs through Sept. 7.
The curfew requires minors in the designated area to be with a parent or guardian between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Spencer said the city adopted the curfew after discussions with police and others about large groups of unsupervised teenagers gathering downtown during recent summers.
“This is something that we’ve been discussing with police department stakeholders, as we’ve seen teenagers coming downtown late at night, far too many times in the past summers,” Spencer said. Such gatherings, she said, create “an unsafe environment for both the community, our downtown and our teenagers and the youths themselves.”
The order follows several days of discussions between the mayor’s office and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department over how to address public safety during the Fourth of July weekend and the remainder of the summer. Police had proposed an earlier curfew focused on the downtown area, while the city favored a later start time. The two sides ultimately agreed on a 9 p.m. curfew for Downtown and Downtown West.
Spencer said the city chose 9 p.m. because it did not want the curfew to begin while it was still daylight during the summer.
St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy said the targeted approach reflects the unique challenges of the city’s downtown entertainment and business district.
“I don’t want to penalize neighborhoods that actually are looking out for their own children,” Tracy said. “They’re coming down to a business area that doesn’t have that oversight, or parents, or guardians.”
He said the curfew is part of a broader public safety strategy and that “adding a curfew is just another tool in the box.”
For the Fourth of July weekend, minors found in violation of the curfew will be taken to a reunification center, where they must be picked up by a parent or guardian. Parents may receive citations, and additional charges are possible if a child is found possessing fireworks.
City officials said they will evaluate the curfew after the holiday weekend before deciding whether any changes are needed for the rest of the summer. They did not immediately provide additional details about how reunification procedures or enforcement will operate after the holiday weekend.
The city said it looked to juvenile curfew policies in several other U.S. cities while developing the order.
To provide alternatives for young people, the Office of Violence Prevention has partnered with the Matthew-Dickey Boys & Girls Club to host supervised activities Friday and Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. The events will include a mobile gaming truck, basketball, chess and art activities provided by St. Louis ArtWorks.
“We also want to be very clear that we understand our city’s youth need to have fun things to do, and we are putting those plans together in addition to what we’ve offered for this weekend,” Spencer said.