JACKSON REJECTS CURFEW; CITY INSTEAD WILL APPLY STATE LAW TO JUVENILES

JACKSON -- City officials said Tuesday they will use the state's existing juvenile code rather than enact an ordinance establishing a curfew in Jackson.

Mayor Paul Sander said he and the Board of Aldermen couldn't see passing an additional ordinance "when the juvenile code, we felt, adequately deals with the problems that we do have."

City officials will monitor juvenile violations over the next several months to see if it will be necessary to take further steps, Sander said.

The juvenile code addresses city officials' concerns regarding any late-night escapades Jackson teen-agers might get into, specifically, sections citing juveniles who might be in need of care or treatment because they are "habitually absent from home without sufficient cause, permission or justification."

The juvenile code does not specify a time period -- such as after midnight -- for enforcement.

An earlier proposal reviewed by aldermen would have required juveniles to be off the streets between midnight and 6 a.m. unless they were involved in athletic or school events or on their way to or from work.

"It's really broader than our curfew," Sander said. "If city police see a pattern of a child being away from home, then it doesn't have to be midnight or 1 a.m."

Police Chief Marvin Sides said using the juvenile code will require parents to become involved if their children are cited for violations.

"By using the juvenile code, parents are made to recognize that their children are out late at night," he said.

Sides and Sander said that any resolution of juvenile violations has to begin at the juvenile's home.

"What we're trying to do is put this where it belongs, and that's with the parents," Sides said. "I don't see where putting this thing anywhere else is going to ultimately solve the problem. We're not attacking the symptoms; we're attacking the problem."

The citations will be parents' "last, best chance" to correct their children's misbehavior, he said.

Randy Rhodes, Cape Girardeau County juvenile officer, said curfew violations are status offenses, "which are things that kids do, which if they were adults they wouldn't get in trouble for."

Rhodes said he thought it made sense for the city to use existing statutes to address residents' concerns.

"It's just another way to get to the same end of the problem," he said.

The wording of the juvenile code allows police to look for a "pattern of behavior," he said, rather than a single incident.

Police will cite juveniles for violations, but the actual disposition of those citations will be handled by the county's juvenile office.

City officials have been reviewing curfew ordinances from surrounding cities for the last several months and have gotten input from residents and city police.

"The statute just came to light in the last few months," Sander said.

Sander, who has said all along that he has mixed feelings about enacting a juvenile curfew, said a curfew probably would not have much effect on the small amount of juvenile crime the city has and would place an additional burden on the city's law-abiding teens.

The curfew issue has been a hot topic in the city; Sander said he has heard "about an equal amount of pros and cons" from residents.

"It's become an emotional issue for people," he said.

The city's only curfew now applies to parks. A previous curfew that applied to residents 18 and under was repealed in 1956.