Iowa City juvenile curfew set aside

IOWA CITY - The fact that summer is over was mentioned by a couple of readers on the online version of the Iowa City curfew story.

The suggestion seems to be that the City Council decided to set it aside because the problems that prompted the curfew discussion will die down as cold weather settles in.

This did come up last night. One council member (sorry, I can't remember who and my notes are unclear) in favor of deferring the vote said with school in session and winter coming, there are likely to be fewer children out late at night.

A resident who spoke against the curfew also argued that, as the weather gets colder, fewer children are likely to be on the streets after dark, so the number of incidences may decrease. Come next spring, if a curfew is in effect, some may claim that the curfew helped reduce the problems, when instead the time of year may have been the bigger factor.

Just to be clear, no one on the council suggested they wanted to put aside the curfew ordinance because they thought the issue would be dormant during the winter months. There was no "sweep this under the rug" attitude. I just wanted to point out that the weather did come up, briefly, last night.

A couple of other items I didn't have room for in the story:

Matt Hayek and Mike O'Donnell, who voted against deferring the curfew ordinance, said the curfew is intended to be a tool to help police and not something to send kids into the juvenile justice system or target certain groups of kids, particularly black youth.

Hayek noted that several Eastern Iowa cities have curfews, including Coralville, North Liberty and Cedar Rapids.

O'Donnell said he appreciated the idea of a coalition working in the community to address the issues, but he wished that was proposed a long time ago.  He and Hayek said the proposal could work in conjuction with a curfew and the two didn't need to be mutually exclusive.

Also, the curfew is not dead. The council is to consider it again Dec. 1. Connie Champion said she wasn't giving up on the idea of a curfew but was willing to defer it. Mike Wright, who proposed the deferal, said he remains a reluctant supporter of the curfew.