Proposed curfew would ban teens after midnight Most crimes committed by youth in Silver Spring are occurring in the afternoon and evening — times that would not be affected by the county’s proposed curfew, crime reports show.
A representative sampling of crimes committed between May 2 and July 19 in Silver Spring — where the vast majority of the county’s juvenile crime occurs — shows that about 74 percent of the crimes believed to have been committed by someone under age 18 took place before 11 p.m.
For example, three boys estimated to be about 12 to 15 years old burglarized a Silver Spring house at 4 p.m. on July 17.
At 8:20 p.m. on June 20, five boys estimated to be about 15 or 16 committed assault and robbery at a neighborhood swim club.
At 1:25 p.m. on June 15, three boys ages 15, 16 and 17 assaulted and robbed a man on Old Columbia Pike.
“This curfew proposal was not based on a number of crimes,” said Montgomery County police spokeswoman Lucille Baur. “It’s based on emerging crime that we have been seeing.”
Baur added that County Executive Ike Leggett “didn’t try to have statistics run prior to the proposal.”
Police Chief Thomas Manger attributed the police force’s desire for the curfew to a gang fight in Silver Spring that resulted in a stabbing the first weekend in July.
At a County Council hearing, Manger rattled off a list of incidents that would have been prevented by the curfew — an attempted car break-in in Bethesda, an attempted break-in at an elementary school in Potomac and a drug deal and resulting fight in Olney.
Some of the incidents aren’t reflected in data, Baur explained, because of the way they were recorded by the police.
Sometimes the police also don’t know if the suspect is a juvenile or an adult, she added.
Critics have pointed out that adults commit more crimes than juveniles.
“By the distorted logic of this bill, it would make more sense to have a curfew for adults,” Montgomery County American Civil Liberties Union Chairman Michael Mage said at the hearing.
Proposed by Leggett, the curfew would prohibit youths under age 18 from being in a public place between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights, and between midnight and 5 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights.
Silver Spring resident Abigail Burman, 17, who is behind a movement of youths organizing against the curfew, said she isn’t surprised by the data.
Studies show that most juvenile crime nationally occurs between 3 and 6 p.m., she said. “Enacting the curfew won’t solve any problems.”
Though Councilman Hans Riemer, D-at large, acknowledged that most juvenile crimes happen in the afternoon, he said the curfew could still be effective.
“It’s a curfew that can be enforced as needed by the police force but does not ban kids from the street,” he said. Juveniles would not violate the curfew until they ignore a police officer’s request to go home.
