The purpose of this chapter is to protect youth from unlawful
and corrupting influences; to reduce juvenile crime, especially violent
crime committed by and perpetrated against juveniles; and to promote
the public health, safety, and general welfare during late night and
school hours. Although the council desires to reduce the incidents
of juvenile crime and victimization, the council does not intend to
prohibit, prevent, or interfere with a youth’s exercise of First
Amendment and other rights under the United States Constitution. This
chapter’s provisions preserve those constitutionally protected
rights.
In enacting this chapter, the council is updating the city’s
existing curfew laws for minors, Ordinance Nos. 2181 and 4847 (the
nighttime curfew) and Ordinance No. 5137 (the daytime curfew). This
chapter’s revisions ensure that the city’s curfew laws
conform to the federal Appellate Court decision, Nunez v. City of
San Diego, 114 F.3d 935 (9th Cir. 1997), and other California or federal
cases that have invalidated curfew ordinances similar to this city’s
prior enactments.
(Ord. 5253 § 2, 2000)
The council of the city finds, determines and declares that:
A. The
city’s nighttime and daytime curfews for minors not only have
met a very real local need, but also have been a significant factor
in minimizing juvenile violence, criminal street-gang activity, and
crime by and against juveniles in the city;
B. Because
of their lack of maturity and experience, persons under the age of
eighteen years are particularly susceptible to participating in unlawful
and gang-related activities and to becoming the victims of adult perpetrators
of crime;
C. Nighttime
and daytime curfews will continue to assist the council’s objective
of protecting the welfare of minors by:
1. Reducing
the likelihood that minors will become the victims of criminal acts,
2. Reducing
the likelihood that minors will participate in criminal acts, unlawful
gang-related activity, drug use, or narcotics trafficking, and
3. Assisting
parents and guardians in carrying out their parental responsibility
to exercise reasonable supervision and control over minors entrusted
to their care;
D. The
experience of other California cities, including Long Beach, Monrovia
and Santa Barbara, reveals that enforcement of the curfew results
in a decrease of juvenile victimization and crimes during curfew hours;
E. The
state of California has neither expressly nor impliedly preempted
the field of daytime curfew ordinances, in that these ordinances directly
address the behavior of children who have left school, not their status
as potential truants; and
F. Daytime
and nighttime curfews for minors will be in the interest of the public
health, safety, and general welfare.
(Ord. 5253 § 2, 2000)
For purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases
shall have the meanings ascribed to them unless the context otherwise
requires:
“Adult”
means any person who is eighteen years of age or older.
“Daytime curfew hours”
means the period from eight-thirty a.m. to one-thirty p.m.
of the same day during which the minor’s school is in session.
“Emergency”
means an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting
state that calls for immediate action. “Emergency” includes,
but is not limited to: a fire, a natural disaster, a motor vehicle
accident or any situation requiring immediate action to prevent loss
of life or serious bodily injury, such as an injury that:
1.
Creates a substantial risk of death or causes death;
2.
Involves unconsciousness, extreme physical pain, disfigurement;
or
3.
Requires immediate medical intervention, surgery or hospitalization.
“Establishment”
means any privately-owned place of business operated for
a profit to which the public is invited, including, but not limited
to, any place of amusement or entertainment.
“Guardian”
means:
1.
A person who, under court order, is the guardian of a minor;
2.
A public or private agency with whom a minor has been placed
by a court order; or
3.
An adult with whom a parent has entrusted the care, control,
or custody of a minor.
“Minor”
means any person who is under eighteen years of age. “Minor”
does not include a person under the age of eighteen years who is:
1.
On active duty with the armed forces of the United States;
2.
Validly married, whether or not the marriage has been dissolved;
or
3.
Otherwise emancipated under California’s or another state’s
laws.
“Operator”
means any individual, company, firm, association, trust,
estate, partnership, corporation, limited liability company or other
entity however organized, operating, managing, conducting or carrying
on any establishment. “Operator” includes, but is not
limited to: the owners, the employees, the partners of a partnership,
the members of an association or the officers of a corporation.
“Parent”
means any person who is the biological parent, adoptive parent,
or a step-parent of a minor.
“Public meeting”
means an assembly, gathering, or meeting:
1.
Of a public: body, entity, agency, authority, office, commission,
board or committee; or
2.
That is not unlawful in its character, open to the public and
organized or convened to address a topic of community or public concern,
interest, or importance.
“Public place”
means:
1.
Any place to which the public or any substantial group of the
public has access, including, but not limited to:
a.
Streets, bridges, parks, playgrounds, recreation areas, plazas,
parking lots;
b.
The common areas of schools, hospitals, office buildings, transportation
facilities;
c.
Grocery or convenience stores, restaurants, fast food outlets,
taverns, cafes, coffee houses;
d.
Theaters, movie theaters, game rooms, arcades, bowling alleys;
e.
Shops, shopping centers, malls; or
f.
Any other place open to the use of the public.
2.
Any area exposed to public view, including, but not limited
to:
a.
Vehicles, whether moving, standing, or parked; or
b.
Unimproved property, vacant lots, abandoned or vacant buildings
or dwellings, doorways or entrances to a building or dwelling, or
the grounds enclosing a building or dwelling.
“Remain”
means to:
2.
Fail to leave the premises when requested to do so by a police
or peace officer, or the owner, operator, or other person in control
of the premises.
“Street”
means a way or place, of whatever nature, open to the use
of the public as a matter of right for vehicular travel or, in the
case of a sidewalk, for pedestrian travel. “Street” includes,
but is not limited to: traffic lanes, parking lanes, curb areas, sidewalks
(whether paved or unpaved), parkways, or any other area found within
the legal right-of-way, regardless of what it is formally called,
whether alley, avenue, court, highway, road or otherwise.
(Ord. 5253 § 2, 2000)