This chapter shall be known and may be cited
as the "Curfew Ordinance."
This is an updating of Ordinance No. 313, enacted
on June 5, 1941, and subsequently amended in its entirety by Ordinance
No. 454, enacted on November 27, 1978, prescribing, in accordance
with prevailing community standards, regulations for the conduct of
minors on streets at night, effectively enforced, taught in the homes
and adhered to for generations, for the good of all minors and for
the furtherance of family responsibility and for the public good,
safety and welfare.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following
terms, phrases, words and their derivations shall have the meanings
given herein. When not inconsistent with the content, words used in
the present tense include the future, words in the plural number include
the singular and words in the singular include the plural. The word
"shall" is always mandatory and not merely directory.
BOROUGH
The Borough of Eddystone, Delaware County, Pennsylvania,
with municipal offices located at 12th and Saville Avenue, Eddystone,
Pennsylvania 19013.
MINOR
Any person under the age of 18 years or, in equivalent phrasing
often herein employed, any person 17 or less years of age.
PARENT
Any person having legal custody of a minor:
A.
As a natural or adoptive parent;
C.
As a person who stands in loco parentis; o
D.
As a person to whom legal custody has been given
by order of court.
REMAIN
To stay behind, to tarry and to stay unnecessarily upon the streets, including the congregating of groups (or of interacting minors) totaling four or more persons, in which any minor involved would not be using streets for ordinary purposes such as mere passage or going home. To implement that thought with additional precision, numerous exceptions are expressly defined in §
103-5.
STREET
A way or place of whatever nature open to the use of the
public as a matter of right for purposes of vehicular travel or, in
the case of a sidewalk thereof, for pedestrian travel. The term "street"
includes the legal right-of-way, including but not limited to the
cartway of traffic lanes, the curb, the sidewalks, whether paved or
unpaved, and any gross plots or other grounds found within the legal
right-of-way of a street. The term "street" applies irrespective of
what it is called or formally named, whether alley, avenue, court,
road or otherwise.
TIME OF NIGHT
Based upon the prevailing standards of time, whether Eastern
standard time or Eastern daylight saving time, generally observed
at that hour by the public in the Borough, prima facie the time then
observed in the Borough municipal office 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 less years of age is herein treated as equivalent
to the phrase "under 18 years of age." Similarly, for example, 11
or less years of age means "under 12 years of age."
[Amended 7-9-2007 by Ord. No. 618, approved 7-9-2007]
It shall be unlawful for any person 17 or less
years of age (under 18) to be or remain in or upon the streets within
the Borough of Eddystone at night beginning at 9:00 p.m. prevailing
time and ending at 6:00 a.m.
It shall be unlawful for a parent having legal
custody of a minor knowingly to permit or by inefficient control to
allow such minor to be or remain upon any Borough street under circumstances
not constituting an exception to or otherwise beyond the scope of
this chapter. The term "knowingly" includes knowledge which a parent
should reasonably be expected to have concerning the whereabouts of
a minor in the parent's legal custody. It is intended to continue
to keep neglectful or careless parents to be a reasonable community
standard of parental responsibility through an objective test. It
shall, a fortiori, be no defense that a parent was completely indifferent
to the activities or conduct or whereabouts of such minor.