The Montgomery County Council is gearing up for a vote on a proposed youth curfew and its proposed alternative, an anti-loitering bill. The council’s Public Safety Committee is scheduled to vote on the curfew and possibly the loitering bill on Dec. 1, said the committee chairman, Councilman Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville. The full council is scheduled to vote on the curfew Dec. 6, and the loitering bill may be added to that day’s agenda as well.
But first the council will hear from community members at a public hearing on the loitering bill Tuesday night — one week after County Executive Ike Leggett accused the council of using the loitering bill as a “stall tactic intended to confuse the debate on the curfew bill.”
Leggett proposed the curfew in July in reaction to a gang-related stabbing in Silver Spring on the July 4 weekend. The measure would make it punishable by fine for anyone under the age of 18 to be in a public place after 11 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday nights or after midnight Friday and Saturday nights. It allows exceptions for youth engaged in activities like going to a movie, working or running a parent-approved errand.
Proposed by Andrews, a vocal opponent of the curfew, the loitering bill would prohibit anyone from being in public “at a time or in a manner not usual for law-abiding persons under circumstances that warrant a justifiable and reasonable alarm or immediate concern.”
Unlike the curfew bill, the loitering bill addresses behavior, Andrews said. It doesn’t discriminate based on age or limit police action to a certain time of day — since most youth crime does not occur during the hours designated by the curfew.
But Leggett has said the loitering bill is too broad. “At best, the loitering bill is on the cusp of constitutionality,” he said last week, referring to the fact that many loitering laws have been found to violate the First Amendment’s guarantee to freedom of assembly.
Though the loitering bill is the focus of Tuesday’s hearing, the curfew bill is likely to come up — for example, in the testimony of state Del. Kirill Reznik, D-Montgomery County, which will be read Tuesday night by his staff.
“I’m supporting the loitering bill as an alternative to the curfew,” Reznik said. “However, I prefer we do nothing.”
Citing declining crime in the county, Reznik suggested the county focus on praising the police for doing a good job rather than creating solutions to nonexistent problems.
Out of the debate has come another idea from Councilwoman Nancy Floreen, D-at large. She proposed amending the curfew legislation to give Leggett the power to implement a 180-day curfew. Since the police report to Leggett, he would know if a curfew is necessary, she said.
“I don’t think the council members are necessarily the source of the greatest wisdom on this subject.”
