Parents in Niles will be targeted in curfew crackdown

Staff report

NILES

Niles police, who recently announced a crackdown on juvenile crimes such as curfew violations, say they plan to hold parents and guardians responsible for the illegal activities of their children.

City ordinances allow a parent or guardian, in addition to the juvenile, to be charged with a minor misdemeanor offense if the juvenile is out in the community after the curfew hours.

Curfew hours are 10 p.m. weekdays for juveniles under age 15 and 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

For juveniles age 15 to 17, curfew is 11 p.m. weekdays and midnight Fridays and Saturdays.

Juveniles driving to or from work or taking care of an errand for parents or guardians should carry with them written, dated and signed permission from the parent or guardian or other person having care or custody of the juvenile, police Chief Rob Hinton said.

Excluded from the curfew are juveniles in the presence of his or her parent or guardian.

Hinton said the Niles Police Department has frequently given juveniles a warning in the past for curfew violations or other crimes, but because of a number of recent juvenile property crimes, the department has adopted a “zero-tolerance” policy and will write citations.

Hinton said parents need to take more responsibility for their children by making sure their child is where he’s supposed to be, especially in cases where the child goes to another child’s house overnight.

In such cases, parents need to talk to the responsible adult and make sure the child is actually at that house, he said.