Charleston City Public Safety Committee approves juvenile curfew

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The City of Charleston Public Safety Committee discussed a juvenile curfew ordinance during their meeting.

Officials approved the ordinance amid a joint effort from the city and the Charleston Police Department to curb underaged crime. The curfew applies to juveniles who are 17 years old and under. There have been large groups of teens involved or causing crimes, specifically in the Central Business District.

“There are clips all over the internet about it. It’s pretty obvious these are not folks going to and from work, going from one house to another. These are gangs of kids congregating and given locations – parking lots, hanging out on street corners, and it’s not one or two of them. It’s 20, 30, 40 teenagers,” said William Cogswell, mayor of the City of Charleston.

The curfew would be in effect from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Thursdays through Sundays. However, in the summer months it would enforced everyday.

“We picked 9 o’clock which to some may seem a little bit early, but that’s when the bars switch from carding everybody that comes in because the dinner crowd is gone. So, they’ve asked to put that timeframe in place and then going until 6 in the morning,” Cogswell said. “Again, we’ve been having incidents. I think we’ve had well over 40 between narcotics, aggravated assault, robbery, car thefts.”

There are exceptions for those who are working, have an emergency, a sponsored event, or using their First Amendment Rights. The mayor stressed this is an urgent matter as kids are getting out of school soon. Officials said this is also in light of the recent trends and are proactively trying to prevent crime.

“Summer is really when you see these things spike. They’ve also had some curfews put in place, apparently, outside of the area – not inside the City of Charleston – that has resulted in more and more of these teens coming to King Street in particular. So, it’s something that we want to try to be proactive on and address,” said Cogswell.

Committee members added a couple amendments including expansion of the map towards East Bay Street, and adding June to the enforcement schedule. It will go to full city council for first reading in May.