For the purpose of this Curfew Chapter, the following terms, phrases,
and words and their derivations shall have the meanings given herein:
ADULT
Any individual being over the age of 21.
BOROUGH
The Borough of Trafford, Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties, Pennsylvania.
EMERGENCY
Refers to unforeseen circumstances, or the status or condition resulting
therefrom, requiring immediate action to safeguard life, limb, or property.
The term includes, but is not limited to fires, natural disasters, automobile
accidents, or other similar circumstances.
MINOR
Any person under the age of 18, or, in equivalent phrasing often
herein employed, any person 17 or fewer years of age.
PARENT
Any person having legal custody of a minor:
A. As a natural or adoptive parent;
B. As a legal guardian;
C. As a person who stands in loco parentis;
D. As a person to whom legal custody has been given by order of court.
PUBLIC PLACE
An area generally visible to public view and includes streets, sidewalks,
bridges, alleys, plazas, parks, driveways, parking lots, automobiles, whether
they are in motion or stationary, and buildings open to the general public,
including those which serve food or drink or provide entertainment, and the
doorways and entrances to buildings or dwellings and the grounds enclosing
them.
REMAIN
To stay behind, to tarry and to stay unnecessarily upon the streets,
including congregating in groups (or of interacting minors) totaling four
or more persons, in which any minor involved would not be using the streets
for ordinary or serious purposes, such as mere passage or going home.
STREET
A way or place, of whatever nature, open to the use of the public
for purposes of vehicular travel, or, in the case of a sidewalk thereof, for
pedestrian travel. The term "street" includes a legal right-of-way, including
but not limited to the cartway of traffic lanes, the curb, the sidewalks,
whether paved or unpaved, and any grass plots or other grounds found within
the legal right-of-way of a street. The term "street" also applies, for curfew
purposes, to ways the public is privileged to use over private property, so
long as the owner permits, including sidewalks and grass plots similarly open
at the time to public use, and to parking areas of any type (residential,
municipal, or commercial) open to public use or from such street or any type
of street. The term "street" applies irrespective of what is called or formally
named, whether alley, avenue, court, road, or otherwise, or whether it is
maintained by the Borough, and irrespective of whether it is open to the use
of the public as a matter of right.
TIME OF NIGHT
Based upon the prevailing standard of time, whether Eastern standard
time or Eastern standard daylight savings time, generally observed at that
hour by the public in the Borough, prima facie at the time when observed in
the Borough administrative offices and police station.
YEAR OF AGE
Continues from one birthday, such as the 17th, to (but not including
the day of) the next, such as the 18th birthday, making it clear that 17 or
fewer years of age is herein treated as equivalent to the phrase "under 18
years of age."
In the following exceptional cases, a minor on the street within the Borough during the nocturnal hours, for which §
90-2 is intended to provide the maximum limits of regulation and a clear general guide for minors, their parents or custodian, and their fellow citizen, shall not, however, be considered in violation of the Curfew Chapter:
A. When such minor is accompanied by a parent, guardian,
or person having legal custody of such minor.
B. When accompanied by an adult authorized by a parent of
such minor to take said parent's place in accompanying said minor for
a designated period of time and purpose within a specified area.
C. When such minor is going directly home from a school-,
church-, or Borough-sponsored activity.
D. When such minor is involved in an emergency.
E. When such minor is engaged in gainful lawful employment
during the curfew hours or is traveling to or from such employment.
F. When the minor is in a motor vehicle with permission
of the parent, guardian, or person having legal custody of the minor.
G. When the minor is involved in interstate travel through,
or beginning or terminating in, the Borough.
H. When the minor is on an errand at the direction of the
minor's parent, with written permission, and is using a direct mute to
the place of the errand and to the return of the minor's home.
I. When the minor is located on the sidewalk immediately
in front of, or adjacent to the minor's home, or the home of a neighbor,
and the minor's parent gave permission for the minor to be at the neighbor's
home.
J. When the minor has been emancipated by court order.
K. When the minor was exercising rights under the First
Amendment such as free exercise of religion, speech, or assembly.
It shall be unlawful for a person having legal custody of a minor knowingly
to permit, or by insufficient control, to allow such minor to be or remain
upon any street within the Borough under circumstances not constituting an
exception to, or otherwise beyond the scope of the Curfew Chapter. The term
"knowingly" includes knowledge which a person should reasonably be expected
to have concerning the whereabouts of a minor in that person's legal
custody. It is intended to continue to keep neglectful or careless parents
or custodians up to a reasonable community standard of parental responsibility
through an objective test. It shall be no defense that a parent or custodian
was completely indifferent to the activities or conduct or whereabouts of
such minor.
Any person or persons, violating the provisions of this chapter, minor
or parent (or custodian), shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to
pay a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $1,000, plus costs of prosecution
for each offense thereafter, and, in default of payment of said fine and costs,
to a term of imprisonment for such a period of time as may be fixed by the
Magisterial District Judge, not, however exceeding 30 days for each offense.