This brief is adapted from notes taken by Documenters Emma Young and Jason Biles, who covered the City-County Council meeting in May. 📝 Read more about what happened.
With summer right around the corner, the Indianapolis City-County Council passed a youth curfew extension.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Tanya Terry said, despite an overall decrease in gun violence in Indianapolis, the percentage of juvenile victims has gone up. The goal of a curfew violation intervention, she said, is to get the youth and their parents or guardians to a connection center, a safe place where they can get connected with resources.
She said taking youth to juvenile detention is the last option.
The curfew for 15-and 16-year-olds starts at 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 9 p.m. the rest of the week. For children under 15, curfew starts at 9 p.m. every day.
The extension will last for 120 days unless renewed.
“I think it’s really critical in all this that our goal is not punishment,” Terry said. “It’s really prevention and partnerships.”
Councilor Rena Allen said youth should have been at the table for the development of this policy.
Councilor Jesse Brown urged his fellow councilors to watch the April City-County Council Education Committee meeting on youth mental health and violence prevention. He said youth advocate Brandon Randall and the Black Church Coalition expressed disapproval of the curfew extension.
Councilor Dan Boots said that a curfew status offense might prevent escalation to a more dangerous situation, and that the policy is not a pipeline to jail but rather part of the council’s attempts to address systemic causes of crime.
The next City-County Council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 1 in the City-County Building Public Assembly Room, 200 E. Washington St.
Emily Worrell is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor and Indy Documenters assistant editor. You can reach her at emily.worrell@mirrorindy.org.
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