Prichard council passes teen curfew

PRICHARD, Ala. (WALA) - In a three to two vote, the Prichard city council approved a teen curfew last night, but the mayor and police chief said they need more time to plan before the ordinance rolls out.

The people wanted it, so Mayor Ron Davis said he is supporting it.

“Curfew is something the community felt like we need. I'm convinced we need it, and we’re going to find a way to make it work.  And that's the bottom line,” Davis said.

In recent weeks, the city council drafted a plan loosely based on Mobile's teen curfew.

Currently, Prichard's curfew will make it illegal for people under the age of 18 to be on the streets after 10 p.m. on school nights and midnight on the weekends.

Davis said the ordinance was created without input from all departments. Now, he and Police Chief Jimmie Gardner want to make amendments.

"What reason does a kid under 17 years old need to be out after 9 o'clock much less 10 o'clock. We’re talking about dropping the times and we would go back and present that to the council,” Davis said.

Davis said the curfew needs a specific plan of action.

"I want to see those kids that say, ‘I'm bored. I need something to do.’ And say ok, we have programs. You need to identify which one you want to do. I think kids these days just having to find things to do is difficult. We want it to be more of a positive thing than taking them to Strickland and lock them up,” Davis said.

The question of where to put the violators still remains. Davis said the Phillip's building could be a possibility. Of course, it would need renovations; but the city is looking at a number of possible locations.

"We’ll have to come up with some other funding to take care of some logistics as far as repairing the buildings. Maybe some officers may need to be on overtime. And those are budget amendments they will have to consider that we will have to find the revenue to do it," Davis said.

City officials have their work cut out, but Davis said he remains confident they will come up with a comprehensive solution.  

The curfew is set to take effect in mid-March.