[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of Trafford 9-5-2006
by Ord. No. 710.[1] Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Streets and sidewalks — See Ch. 170.
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance also repealed former Ch. 90, Curfew,
adopted 10-15-2002 by Ord. No. 687, as amended in its entirety 9-16-2004 by
Ord. No. 699.
For the purpose of this Curfew Chapter, the following terms, phrases,
and words and their derivations shall have the meanings given herein:
Any individual being over the age of 21.
The Borough of Trafford, Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties, Pennsylvania.
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.
Any person under the age of 18, or, in equivalent phrasing often
herein employed, any person 17 or fewer years of age.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
A.
It shall be unlawful for any person 17 or fewer years
of age (under age 18) to be or remain in or upon the streets, alleys, parks,
athletic fields, business places, or any other public places within the Borough
of Trafford between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. the following day
on school nights and between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. when school
is out for summer recess and on weekends.
B.
No person, firm or corporation operating places of amusement
or entertainment, or any agent, servant or employee of any person, firm or
corporation shall permit any person 17 or fewer years of age (under age 18)
to enter or to remain in such places of amusement or entertainment during
the hours prohibited under this section, unless such person is accompanied
by his or her parent, guardian or other adult person having his or her care,
custody or control.
C.
No person, firm or corporation operating a hotel, motel,
lodging or rooming house, or any agent, servant or employee of such person,
firm or corporation operating a hotel, motel, lodging or rooming house, shall
permit any person 17 or fewer years of age (under age 18) to visit, loiter,
idle, wander or stroll in any portion of such hotel, motel, lodging or rooming
house between the hours prohibited under this section; provided, however,
that the provisions of this section do not apply when the minor is accompanied
by his or her parent, guardian, or other adult person having the care, custody
and control of such minor.
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.
A.
A police officer of the Borough, upon finding or having
attention called to any minor on the streets in violation of the Curfew Chapter,
normally shall take the minor to the Borough police station, where a parent
or custodian shall immediately be notified to come for such minor, whereupon
they shall be questioned. This is intended to permit ascertainment, under
constitutional safeguards, of relevant facts, and to centralize responsibility
in the officer there and then on duty for accurate, effective, fair, impartial,
and uniform enforcement in recording, thus making available experienced supervisory
personnel, the best of facilities, and access to information and records.
In the absence of convincing evidence, such as a driver's license, police
officers on the street shall, in the first instance, use their best judgment
in determining age.
B.
Police procedures may constantly be refined in the light
of experience, and may provide that the police officer may deliver to a parent
or custodian a minor under appropriate circumstances, for example, a minor
of tender age near home whose identity and address may be readily ascertained
or are known. In any event, such police officer shall, within 24 hours, file
a written report with the officer in charge, or shall participate, to the
extent that the information for which the officer is responsible, in the preparation,
by the officer involved in such case, in the filing of such report within
24 hours.
C.
When a parent or custodian, immediately called, has come
to take charge of the minor, and the appropriate information has been recorded,
the minor shall be released to the custody of such parent or custodian. If
the parent or custodian cannot be located or fails to take charge of the minor,
then the minor shall be released to the juvenile authorities, except to the
extent that, in accordance with the police regulations, approved in advance
by juvenile authorities, the minor may temporarily be entrusted to a relative,
neighbor, or other person who will, on behalf of the parent or custodian,
assume the responsibility of caring for the minor pending the availability
or arrival of a parent or custodian.
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.
