Curfew: Nighttime Is The Right Time

Coeur d’Alene effectively used a curfew and limits on smoking, loud noise, skateboards, roller skates and bicycles to restore order on main street during the 1980s - particularly after a Spokane teen was thrown through a storefront window.

At the time, youngsters packed downtown streets and sidewalks on warm summer nights, chasing tourists and customers from the hard-pressed central business district.

They also left behind calling cards: Excrement in doorways, store fronts stinking of urine, roofs littered with beer bottles, and vomit.

Unfortunately, the crackdown chased the problem elsewhere. Youngsters began hanging out on the county side of the city limits, where Coeur d’Alene police have no jurisdiction.

A proposal by a Kootenai County youth task force would close this loophole by establishing a countywide curfew - if reluctant county commissioners agree to it: 10:30 on weeknights and midnight on weekends.

The task force recommendations also would strengthen law enforcement’s hand by making it illegal to skip school or run away. A youth could spend up to 30 days in the juvenile detention center for violating the curfew, runaway or truancy laws more than twice.

Critics say the proposed laws will compound crowding at the detention center, transform deputies into baby sitters, and further stretch the already thin Kootenai County Sheriff’s staff.

But supporters argue persuasively that the city curfew has helped cut down on crime. Kids looking for something to do on the streets are easy prey for troublemaking peers and older youths.

The common-sense proposals would give police and parents some control over habitual truants and runaways. In 1994, a combined 452 runaway reports were handled by the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office and the Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls police departments. But there’s nothing law enforcement can do about them because it’s not against the law to run away in Idaho.

County commissioners have procrastinated for nine months on the task force proposals. Commissioners say they’ll get to the them by the end of the summer. But, by then, another summer will be lost and the problem will be worse.

Coeur d’Alene got its youth problems under control by acting quickly and firmly - not by cooling its heels and hoping the problems would go away.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board