Officials Ironing Out Curfew

Kids have at least a few more weeks of late-night liberties before county officials pass a curfew ordinance.

Kootenai County commissioners, prosecutors and law officers gathered in an early morning workshop Thursday to discuss a curfew proposal submitted to the commissioners last fall.

Sheriff’s officials suggested a few revisions to make it easier to enforce.

“In the next two or three weeks here we hope to get this out of the ditch one way or another,” said Commission Chairman Dick Compton.

The new law would make teenagers and their parents more accountable, said Gary Stamper, a member of the Kootenai County Youth Task Force.

“It’s taken an incredible amount of time for this to get done,” said Stamper, who was not at the meeting. “If this isn’t passed fairly soon, we’ll take this to the streets in an initiative process.”

The ordinance would set a countywide curfew of 10:30 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends. The proposal also makes it illegal to skip school or run away from home.

Youths could spend up to 30 days in the detention center if they violate the curfew, run away from home or are truant more than twice.

Coeur d’Alene has a curfew, but adults have no control over kids caught after hours in the county, unless they are breaking the law.

The sheriff’s department wants to give its officers plenty of leeway on enforcing the curfew. The officers also want nothing to do with forcing truant students to attend school.

“On the curfew violations, we’d like to see some language dealing with discretion for the officers, so they wouldn’t have to necessarily take them in,” said Undersheriff Gary Cuff.

, DataTimes