AIKEN --- Patricia Causey has lived in Crosland Park for 15 years, having moved to the northside subdivision because she felt it was a nice community.
However, the neighborhood's decline in the past five years has the Aiken resident concerned.
During that time, Ms. Causey said, her home and property have been the target of vandals who, she suspects, are unsupervised youths..
It's because of those incidents that Ms. Causey supports the Aiken City Council's proposed youth protection ordinance, which would keep young people off the streets late at night.
Council members are poised to discuss the measure's curfew -- which would require anyone younger than 17 to be inside by a set time with a few exceptions -- at a public meeting Tuesday, though it likely won't be voted on until June.
"In the evenings, sometime we'll get calls of kids just hanging out in the street and not getting out of the way for cars," said Chief Pete Frommer of the Aiken Department of Public Safety.
Other communities experiencing similar problems, such as Rock Hill, have tackled the problem with similar curfews.
Lyn Garris, a spokeswoman for Rock Hill, said the curfew has helped get young people off the streets.
Last summer, Aiken police created a task force after the number of calls about suspicious youth activities late at night increased, though authorities could not provide exact numbers.
Plainclothes officers in unmarked cars patrolled from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., and after three months police had more than 650 criminal cases. They included weapons and drug possessions, noise, alcohol violations, loud music and traffic offenses.
The ordinance "is not to try to get them off the streets to arrest them and put them in jail, but to try to correct the problem because no good thing happens at 2 in the morning," City Manager Roger LeDuc said.
Some residents say the ordinance is taking control away from parents.
Catherine Williams, who works with the Aiken County School District, told the council that parents and churches need to take responsibility for their children and that the curfew would take that control and responsibility out of the home.
Mr. LeDuc disagreed, saying it does just the opposite.
"I think it's giving control back to the parents," he said. Some parents, he said, don't know their child is out at night until a police officer brings him or her home.
Reach Michelle Guffey at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or michelle.guffey@augustachronicle.com.
THE PROPOSED ORDINANCE
Read the ordinance in it's entirety.RESTRICTED HOURS FOR YOUTHS UNDER THE AGE OF 17
Aug. 20 to June 4
Sunday through Thursday: 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Friday and Saturday: midnight to 5 a.m.
June 5 to Aug. 19
Monday through Sunday: midnight to 5 a.m.
ACTIVITIES EXEMPT FROM RESTRICTED HOURS
- Any youth accompanied by a parent or guardian
- Any youth engaged in going to or returning home from any employment activity.
- FAMILY EMERGENCIES
- Any youth on his or her residential property or an adjoining neighbor's property with that homeowner's permission.
- Any youth who is attending or returning home from an official school, religious activity that is supervised by adults and sponsored by the city, any civic organization, any church, synagogue, temple, or other legal entity that takes responsibility for that youth.
PENALTIES:
- A first offense will be a verbal or written warning. A responsible adult will then be contacted to retrieve the youth. The responsible adult will be made aware of the situation.
- Repeat offenders may be released to parental custody by officers, who will decide what other appropriate actions should be taken under public safety policies.
- Any offender 10 years old or younger will have a copy of any incident report forwarded to the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
Source: City of Aiken
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