DC mayor intends to declare emergency to bring back curfew zones
Hours before the District of Columbia’s law that allows police to establish curfew zones for teens was set to expire Wednesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she intended to declare a mayoral emergency to revive the measure.
Bowser said the move is intended to provide a bridge to the next D.C. Council meeting on April 21, where the issue is expected to come up for a vote.
Bowser repeated her support for the Juvenile Curfew Second Temporary Amendment Act of 2025 that gives authority to the Metropolitan Police Department to establish juvenile curfew zones in designated areas from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The zoned approach is intended to stop mass gatherings of teens in places such as the Navy Yard, where so-called “teen takeovers” have often erupted into fights and led to arrests.
Under the bill that was in effect until April 15, anyone under the age of 18 who gathers in groups of nine or more would be in violation of the curfew. According to the provision, the parents or guardians of children under the age of 18 could be fined up to $500 or be assigned community service if a child in their care violates the curfew.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Bowser said the curfew strategy is a necessary tool.
“It’s not the only tool, but we need it,” she said. “When we have a curfew zone and we tell children not to take over an area, it has worked.”
There have been a number of exceptions to the zone curfews.
Teenagers under 18 would be exempt if they are accompanied by a parent, are completing an errand for an adult, riding in a car, on their way to or from work or are attending or leaving any activity sponsored by the D.C. government or a civic organization. They would also be exempt if they were exercising their First Amendment rights.
D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto, who, like the mayor, said the curfews serve as one tool against juvenile crime and violence, is expected to ask her colleagues on the council to pass a permanent version of the bill when the next legislative meeting is held April 21.
Opponents of the curfew say there’s little evidence to suggest that they actually work.
“They’re not proven to reduce crime. What we know is that they can … displace crime rather than preventing it altogether,” Riya Saha Shah, CEO of the Juvenile Law Center, told WTOP.
Saha Shah also said that curfews can lead to “more young people being pulled into the criminal legal system … because children are being surveilled and stopped for things that ordinarily they wouldn’t be.”
Curfews also serve to “criminalize” homeless teens for being outside when they don’t have a place to go, “because they are unhoused,” she said.
Some of the debate over curfews spills over to whether young people have enough outlets for constructive activities. D.C.’s Department of Parks and Recreation has ramped up programming for kids and teenagers over the spring break to help aid that exact concern.
But Saha Shah said what many people take for granted — the ability to gather informally in public places — is often denied to teenagers.
“We’re criminalizing kids being out and about anywhere now, through these curfews,” she said. “When I was a teenager, that’s what we did. We just hung out outside the movie theater or outside the grocery store or something. That’s what children do.”