For the purposes of this chapter the following terms, phrases, words and their derivations shall have the meaning given herein. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future, words in the plural number include the singular, and words in the singular number include the plural. The word “shall” is always mandatory and not merely directory.
“City”
means the city and borough of Sitka, Alaska, with administrative offices at 100 Lincoln Street.
“Emergency”
means an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action. The term includes, but is not limited to, a fire, natural disaster, or automobile accident, or any situation requiring immediate action to prevent serious bodily injury or loss of life.
“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.
“Juvenile” or “minor”
means any unemancipated person under the age of 18.
“Operator”
means any individual, firm, association, partnership, or corporation operating, managing, or conducting any establishment. The term includes the members or partners of an association or partnership and the officers of a corporation.
“Parent”
means any person having legal custody of a juvenile (1) as a natural or adoptive parent, (2) as a legal guardian, (3) as a person who stands in loco parentis, or (4) as a person to whom legal custody has been given by court order.
“Public place”
means any place to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, common areas of schools, shopping centers, parking lots, parks, play-grounds, transportation facilities, theaters, restaurants, shops, bowling alleys, taverns, cafes, arcades, and similar areas that are open to the use of the public. As a type of public place, a street is 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. “Street” includes that 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.
“Remain”
means to stay behind, to tarry and to stay unnecessarily in a public place including the congregating of groups (or of interacting minors) totaling four or more persons in which any juvenile involved would not be using the streets for ordinary or serious purposes such as mere passage or going home, or to fail to leave the premises of an establishment when requested to do so by a police officer or the operator of an establishment. To implement this provision with additional precision and precaution, numerous exceptions are expressly defined in this chapter. More and more exceptions become available with a juvenile’s increasing years and advancing maturity as appropriate in the interest of reasonable regulation.
“Time of night”
referred to herein is based upon the prevailing standard of time, whether Alaska standard time or Alaska daylight savings time, generally observed at that hour by the public in the city; prima facie the time then observed in the city administrative offices and police station.
“Years of age”
continues from one birthday, such as the seventeenth to (but not including the day of) the next, such as the eighteenth birthday, making it clear that 17 or less years of age is treated as equivalent to the phrase “under 18 years of age,” the latter phrase in practice, unfortunately, having confused a number of persons into the mistaken thought that 18-year-olds might be involved. Similarly, for example, 11 or less years of age means “under 12 years of age.”
(S.G.C. 10.72.010; Ord. 97-1467 § 4, 1997)
It is unlawful for any person 17 or less of age (under 18) to be or remain in or upon a public place within the city and borough of Sitka during the period ending at 5:00 a.m. and beginning:
A. 
At 11:59 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights; and
B. 
Eleven p.m. on all other nights.
(S.G.C. 10.72.020; Ord. 97-1467 § 4, 1997)
The following shall constitute valid exceptions to the operation of this chapter:
A. 
When a juvenile is accompanied by a parent or guardian of such juvenile;
B. 
When a juvenile is accompanied by an adult authorized by a parent or guardian of such juvenile to take such parent’s place in accompanying such juvenile for a designated period of time and purpose within a specified area;
C. 
When the juvenile is on an errand as directed by his or her parent or guardian;
D. 
When a juvenile is exercising First Amendment rights protected by the United States Constitution, such as the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and the right of assembly, and has in their possession a written communication, signed and dated by a parent or guardian of the juvenile with their home address and telephone number, specifying when, where and in what manner the juvenile will be in a public place during hours when this chapter is applicable to such written communication;
E. 
When a juvenile is on the sidewalk or property where the juvenile resides, or on either side of or across the street from the place where the juvenile resides, and the adult owner or resident of that property has given permission for the juvenile to be there;
F. 
When a juvenile is returning home by a direct route (without any unnecessary detour or stop) from and within one hour of the termination of a school activity or an activity of a religious or other voluntary association, or a place of public entertainment, such as a movie, play or sporting event;
G. 
When the juvenile is legally employed and carries a certified card of employment, renewable each calendar month when the current fact so warrant, dated or reissued not more than 45 days previously, signed by the chief of police and briefly identifying the juvenile, the addresses of the juvenile’s home and of the juvenile’s place of employment, and the juvenile’s hours of employment;
H. 
When the juvenile is, with parental or guardian consent, engaged in normal interstate travel through the city or originating or terminating in the city;
I. 
When the juvenile is married or has been married pursuant to state law;
J. 
If the juvenile is involved in an emergency;
K. 
In the case of an operator of an establishment, when the operator has notified the police that a juvenile was present on the premises of the establishment during curfew hours and refused to leave;
L. 
Each of the foregoing exceptions and their several limitations, such as provisions for notification, is severable, as hereinafter provided but here reemphasized, and will be considered by the assembly, when warranted by future experience illuminated by the views of student government associations, school personnel, citizens, associations, parents, officers and persons in authority concerned positively with juveniles as well as with juvenile delinquency.
(S.G.C. 10.72.030; Ord. 97-1467 § 4, 1997; Ord. 02-1670 § 4, 2002)
It is unlawful for a parent having legal custody of a juvenile knowingly to permit or by inefficient control to allow the juvenile to remain in any city public place under circumstances not constituting an exception to, or otherwise beyond the scope of, this chapter. The term “knowingly” includes knowledge that a parent should reasonably be expected to have concerning the whereabouts of a juvenile in that parent’s legal custody. This requirement is intended to hold a neglectful or careless parent up to a reasonable community standard of parental responsibility through an objective test. It shall, therefore, be no defense that a parent was completely indifferent to the activities or conduct or whereabouts of such juvenile.
(S.G.C. 10.72.040; Ord. 97-1467 § 4, 1997)
It is unlawful for any operator of an establishment to knowingly permit a juvenile to remain at the establishment under circumstances not constituting an exception to, or otherwise beyond the scope of, this chapter. The term “knowingly” includes knowledge that an operator should reasonably be expected to have concerning the patrons of the establishment. The standard for “knowingly” shall be applied through an objective test: whether a reasonable person in the operator’s position should have known that the patron was a juvenile in violation of this chapter.
(S.G.C. 10.72.050; Ord. 97-1467 § 4, 1997)
A. 
If a police officer reasonably believes that a juvenile is in a public place in violation of this chapter, the officer shall notify the juvenile that he or she is in violation of this chapter and shall require the juvenile to provide his or her name, address, and telephone number and how to contact his or her parent or guardian. In determining the age of the juvenile and in the absence of convincing evidence such as a birth certificate, a police officer shall, in the first instance of violation of this chapter, use his or her best judgment in determining age.
B. 
Police procedures shall constantly be refined in the light of experience and may provide that the police officer may deliver to a parent or guardian thereof a juvenile under appropriate circumstances; for example, a juvenile of tender age, near home, whose identity and address may readily be ascertained or are known.
C. 
When a police officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the juvenile has engaged in delinquent conduct, the procedure shall then be to take the juvenile to the police station where a parent or guardian shall immediately be notified to come for the juvenile whereupon the parent or guardian and the juvenile shall be questioned. This is intended to permit ascertainment, under constitutional safeguards, of relevant facts, and to centralize responsibility in the person designated there and then on duty for accurate, effective, fair, impartial and uniform enforcement, and recording, thus, making available experienced personnel and access to information and records.
D. 
When a parent or guardian, immediately called, has come to the location of the contact to take charge of the juvenile, and the appropriate information has been recorded, the juvenile shall be released to the custody of such parent. If the parent cannot be located or fails to take charge of the juvenile, then the juvenile shall be released to the juvenile authorities, the juvenile will be cited and released except in the case of juveniles under the age of 12 who will remain in custody until appropriate placement can be made.
E. 
In the case of a first violation of this chapter by a juvenile, the chief of police shall send to a parent or guardian written notice of the violation with a warning that any subsequent offense will result in enforcement of parental responsibility and of applicable penalties.
F. 
For the first violation of this chapter by an operator of an establishment who permits a juvenile to remain on the premises, a police officer shall issue a written notice of the violation with a warning that any subsequent violation will result in full enforcement of this chapter, including enforcement of operator responsibility and of applicable penalties.
G. 
In any event the police officer shall, within 24 hours, file a written report with the chief of police or shall participate to the extent of the information for which he or she is responsible in the preparation of a report on the curfew violation. It is not the intention of this section to require extensive reports that will prevent police officers from performing their primary police duties. The reports shall be as simple as is reasonably possible and may be completed by police departmental personnel other than sworn police officers.
(S.G.C. 10.72.060; Ord. 97-1467 § 4, 1997; Ord. 98-1488 § 4, 1998)
A. 
If, after the warning notice pursuant to SGC § 10.55.060 of a first violation by a juvenile, a parent violates SGC § 10.55.040 (in connection with a second violation by the juvenile), this shall be treated as a first offense by the parent. For the first offense by a parent, the fine shall be $50.00, and for each subsequent offense by a parent the fine shall be increased by an additional $50.00, e.g., $100.00 for the second offense, $150.00 for the third offense. The district court, upon finding a parent guilty, shall sentence the parent to pay this fine.
B. 
The parent or legal guardian having custody of a juvenile subject to this section shall be liable for all costs incurred by the city for providing personnel to remain in the company of a juvenile who has been detained as a curfew violator if the parent or guardian does not pick up the juvenile within one hour after receiving notice from the city that the city is detaining the juvenile for a curfew violation. The amount to be paid by the parent or guardian shall be based on the hourly wage of the city employee who is assigned to remain with the juvenile plus the cost of benefits for that employee.
C. 
The parent or legal guardian having custody of a juvenile subject to this section shall be liable for any fine or condition of restitution or reparation imposed by a court upon a curfew violator; provided, that the curfew violator has not paid the fine or made restitution of reparation within the time ordered by the court; and further provided, that the parent or legal guardian has been made a party defendant in all enforcement proceedings against the curfew violator and shall be served with all citations, summons, complaints, notices, and other documents required to be served on the curfew violator defendant.
D. 
Any juvenile who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter shall be cited for such violations; for the first citation the fine shall be $50.00 with the fine increasing by $50.00 for each subsequent violation.
E. 
If, after the warning notice pursuant to SGC § 10.55.060 of a violation of this chapter, an operator of an establishment violates SGC § 10.55.050 a second time, this shall be treated as a first offense by the operator. For the first offense by an operator, the fine shall be $50.00, and for each subsequent offense by an operator the fine shall be increased by an additional $50.00, e.g., $100.00 for the second offense, $150.00 for the third offense.
F. 
The maximum penalty for violation of this chapter shall be $300.00, except for curfew violation, which shall carry a maximum penalty of not more than $250.00 (AS 29.35.085(b)).
(S.G.C. 10.72.070; Ord. 97-1467 § 4, 1997; Ord. 15-11 § 4, 2015)
Notice of the existence of this chapter and of the curfew regulations established by it shall be posted in or about such public or quasi-public places as may be determined by the chief of the police department in order that the public may be constantly informed of the existence of this chapter and its regulations.
(S.G.C. 10.72.080; Ord. 97-1467 § 4, 1997)