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| City polices parenting by enforcing curfew |
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| Written by John Saiz / Patterson Irrigator | |
| Saturday, 24 November 2007 | |
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“We’ve contacted 11-year-old, 10-year-old kids out at 3 a.m. We have parents that really don’t care.” — Tyrone Spencer Patterson police chief Parents could face fines when deputies find their children out past 11 p.m., Patterson police Chief Tyrone Spencer announced at the Patterson City Council meeting Tuesday. Patterson Police Services’ new policy is in response to a juvenile justice system that is too busy to punish children for being out past curfew, Spencer said. By going after the parents, he said, there might be real consequences for those who violate the 11 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew. “(Curfew violations) are an extremely low priority for the courts,” Spencer said. “They really don’t like to see these cases take up their time.” When parents are charged, the violation will go through the regular court system. “The adult court does have a little bit of teeth with it,” Spencer said. A parent could be charged with a misdemeanor and fined as much as $2,500 — and there could be jail time for repeat offenders. Council members wanted to make sure not every teen caught out past 11 p.m. would be cited, though. “There are some legitimate reasons for kids to be out,” Councilwoman Dejeune Shelton said. She gave the example of a teen going to and from a late-night job. Spencer said deputies would have a lot of leeway when determining which parents to cite and that parents would not be cited in the scenario mentioned by Shelton. He also said parents who did their due diligence but were still duped by a child who sneaked out likely would not be cited. “If we can show it isn’t the fault of the parent, they won’t be given a cite,” Spencer said. Mayor Becky Campo said she worried about the amount of deputy discretion involved in the policy. “The key is for officers to have good judgment, so that we don’t have troubles we’ve had with alleged misconduct,” Campo said. Residents complained at July and August council meetings about police harassment. Several teens told the council they’re regularly pulled over by Patterson deputies for no reason, and two mothers talked about police intimidating their children. “I’d hate to see a number of parents and kids come up to that podium,” Campo said. Spencer said the policy is not an excuse to harass teens, but an effort to hold accountable the parents who are not taking care of their children. “We’ve contacted 11-year-old, 10-year-old kids out at 3 a.m.,” he said. “We have parents that really don’t care.” Patterson deputies will charge parents under the delinquent conduct section of the state penal code. While Spencer announced the policy Tuesday, he said he had already directed his deputies to start citing parents. However, he said deputies had not yet caught any curfew violators. “By holding parents accountable for curfew violations … a greater level of compliance will be achieved,” Spencer wrote in a report to the council. To reach John Saiz at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Comments
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how about cps instead of a silly fine!!