Northeast News
May 24, 2012

Kansas City’s minor curfew will go into effect this Memorial Day weekend.

Following a shooting on the Country Club Plaza last year that injured several youth, the City Council voted to make changes to the city’s minor curfew ordinance.

The minor curfew will be in effect during the summer months from May 25 through the last Sunday in September and will affect minors 17 and younger.

For minors under 16, the curfew will be 10 p.m. and for minors ages 16-17, the curfew will be 11 p.m.

City Council members also designated five areas that will have a special curfew of 9 p.m. for youth 17 and younger during the summer months. Those include the Plaza, Westport, Downtown/Central Business District, 18th and Vine and Zona Rosa.

In October, the curfew will revert to 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays for all minors under 18.

Minors who violate the curfew ordinance will be detained and parents will be contacted to pick up the minor. For each offense, parents can be fined up to $500.

Exceptions for the curfew include:

•When a minor is attending an event for which the city has specifically approved the presence of unaccompanied minors upon city property
•When a minor is accompanied by his or her parent, guardian or other adult person having the lawful care and custody of the minor
•When the minor is on an emergency errand directed by his or her parent or guardian or other adult person having the lawful care and custody of such minor
•When the minor is returning directly home from a school activity, school entertainment, school recreational activity or school dance
•When the minor is returning directly home from lawful employment that makes it necessary to be in the places referenced in this section during the prescribed period of time
•When the minor is attending or traveling directly to or from an activity involving the exercise of first amendment rights of free speech, freedom of assembly or free exercise of religion
•When the minor is traveling through the city on the interstate.