SAN BENITO — Three years ago, city officials reinstated the city’s curfew law to keep youths off the streets late at night.
Since then, the law has led police to cite 50 juveniles for violations.
But on weekdays, the curfew might be too tough on teenagers playing late basketball games in the city’s parks, City Commissioner Pete Galvan said Tuesday.
Now, officials are considering revising the curfew’s hours to align them with park hours.
“We want to modify the hours of the curfew,” City Manager Manuel De La Rosa told commissioners during a meeting Aug. 16. “We want it to be more in line with the parks’ hours. We don’t want this curfew ordinance to criminalize teenagers playing basketball.”
While the curfew restricts unsupervised minors from streets and public areas from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays and 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekends, parks are open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.
”My only take is that it aligns with the park hours and kids playing basketball aren’t being intimidated — ‘You know, you need to go home,’” Galvan told commissioners during the meeting.
Requesting school district review
Meanwhile, Commissioner Rene Garcia, who said he stands by the curfew’s current hours, wants the San Benito school district’s police officials to review the proposal aimed at changing those hours.
“What I want is to make sure we have input from the school district police,” he said Tuesday. “I want to do everything I can to ensure the community is safe. We have to be careful considering we do have a lot of vandalism — not just here in San Benito but everywhere.”
Garcia is also requesting Police Chief Mario Perea determine whether gangs might be on the streets.
“You see a group of kids — juveniles — late at night, unsupervised by their parents,” Garcia told Perea during the meeting. “What number of juveniles do you consider to be a gang? I want to look into that. Sometimes we see a lot of unsupervised juveniles. Of course, we want to make sure we address things like that.”
The law
Every three years, state law requires officials review curfew laws.
In 2019, the city’s past commission re-enacted the curfew after letting it expire in 2017.
The law, which bars juveniles from streets and public areas from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays and 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekends, also requires parents to supervise their children during that time.
Teenage violators face juvenile court prosecution, with fines of up to $500, while parents face as much as $500 in fines.
Harlingen renews curfew
Last week, Harlingen city commissioners renewed the city’s curfew law.
In 2019, commissioners there also reinstated their curfew law following a six-month lapse after Police Chief Michael Kester’s statistics showed the ordinance helped cut down on juvenile arrests from 2015 to 2018.
From 2015 to 2018, the curfew running from 10:30 p.m. until 6 a.m. weekdays and from midnight to 6 a.m. weekends, cut juvenile arrests from 419 to 197, statistics showed.
