City Considers Later Curfew on Weekends

Camarillo youths could get a later curfew on weekend nights, but a separate daytime curfew may be added, under ordinance revisions being considered by the City Council.

While schools are in regular session, the daytime curfew would include Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Evening curfew would include Sunday through Thursday from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., but under the revised ordinance the curfew would be in effect from 12:01 to 6 a.m. on weekend nights.

The juvenile curfew ordinance holds parents or guardians responsible if they knowingly allow minors out unaccompanied during curfew hours. Under the revised ordinance, owners or operators of establishments would also be held responsible if they allow a juvenile to remain in their facility during curfew hours.

City Council members will decide at their Wednesday meeting whether to approve the revised ordinance or make further changes.

City Atty. Robert Flandrick said he recommended the changes after a federal judge struck down San Diego’s juvenile curfew law earlier this year. The law had been in effect for more than 40 years.

“So we tried to come up with a new ordinance that meets the objections the court found in San Diego,” Flandrick said. “We basically redefined the periods of curfew so there is no question.”

Penalties for violating the revised ordinance would remain the same. Parents, and now establishment owners or operators as well, will face a misdemeanor fine the first time. The maximum amount of a misdemeanor fine is $1,000.

Juveniles, however, will have an opportunity to perform community service the first time they violate the curfew. But after that, juveniles will face a misdemeanor fine as well.

“People under 18 are particularly susceptible, by their age or lack of experience, to participating in unlawful activities,” said Camarillo Police Cmdr. Craig Husband. “They also tend to be the victims of older criminals.”