Clinton City Council–Curfew change.

Clinton City Council voted unanimously to move the issue of changing the curfew hours forward to the next Council’s meeting on Tuesday, November 26th.  Children as young as 11yr. old are violating curfew hours. The curfew hours are currently 10:30pm to 6am Sundays through Thursday, and 11:30pm to 6am on Fridays, and are looking to move it back to 11pm.

James Ballauer- Deputy Police Chief with the Clinton Police Department, said, “Since the end of the year, we have had 64 curfew violations at all times of night after curfew.  I would say 14 to 16 of them have had charges in regard to stolen cars and weapons being found in the cars.  We have really been trying to tighten up here as far as the calls at night for criminal actions, especially involving juveniles.”  However, the majority of them are in their teens, and they already have plans to fine the parents. Vehicle burglaries and vehicle theft are some of the crimes being committed by minors.

Other Departments in Iowa fine the parents or guardians for any time a child is out after curfew. Deputy Police Chief, said, “ It would be a warning for the first violation.  The second violation after that could be a $100 to $500 dollar fine, and subsequently  $200 to $750 dollars up to $1,000 dollars. The other thing we are looking toward with the fines is setting up a fund for children, community programs for them.  We’re not doing this for a money crab if this helps us identify some families that may need help with social services.  We do have a Children’s Police Academy here.  We are looking  at starting up a cadet program at the middle school, so these fines could go into a fund to help support that as well.”

The Clinton City Council must go through a few more motions for this to quickly be placed in practice