Just 24 hours after Kansas City Mayor Sly James writes city leaders about “a distinct possibility” of a 9pm city-wide curfew for people 17 and under, the plan may be on the shelf.
City Council Members John Sharp says he and Councilman Ed Ford ar working on an alternative.
It would call for a curfew later than 9 pm, and one restricted to the city’s entertainment districts. Sharp says “they’re the ones hanging out late at night, unsupervised”.
Sharp says the Plaza, the Power & Light District, Westport and Zona Roza are likely locations for the curfew. He added there may be a couple of locations, but he did not mentioned them by name. It appears that’s a detail they are still working out.
Today Sharp called the city-wide curfew idea a “non starter” with him.
“It’s just too broad, and we don’t have the manpower to enforce it”, he told KMBC 9 News..
Sharp also indicates the entertainment zone alternative may also come with a new, higher fines for the first offense against the parents of a violator.
He again called the $1 fine for a first offense “a joke”.
He says the city needs a a set of graduated fines for the parents, adding” it has to be more than the cost of a babysitter for the evening”.
When the problem first appeared years ago, the City curfew law called for regular reports to the city on its effectivness.
“I’ve never seen that”, said Sharp referring to the curfew reports. He says that’s another example of how the existing curfew law is not being enforced.
Sharp’s Public Safety Committee will probably talk to the Kansas City Police commanders about their perspective at the Wednesday morning committee meeting.
At this point, it appears the City Council will try to implement a curfew ordinance at its Thursaday afternoon meeting. It appears the Sharp/Ford entertainment zone curfew proposal will be the starting point for the discussion. To pass the ordinance and imeidately put it into place, the measure would need a supermajority, nine city council votes.
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