The following editorial appeared Friday in the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Kept in proper perspective and not viewed as an anti-crime panacea, teen-curfew laws have much to recommend them. …

Many curfews have been derailed by state Supreme Court decisions over the years, but prevailing thought is that there should be a way that such ordinances can be written to satisfy court concerns while putting this valuable tool back in place.

Three Supreme Court rulings have focused on curfews. In 1973, the state court deemed a curfew ordinance unconstitutional, but did stipulate that a juvenile curfew ordinance “may be permissible where they are specific in their prohibition and necessary in curing a demonstrated social evil.”

But in 1997, three years after the Legislature gave cities the power to enforce juvenile curfews, the state high court struck down Bellingham’s curfew ordinance, finding that it “infringes on minors’ fundamental freedom of movement and expression and is not narrowly tailored to address the problem of juvenile crime.”

The court ruled again in 2003 that a curfew law, this one in Sumner, was unconstitutional and void because it was vague and violated juveniles’ rights to move about freely.

When the state Supreme Court is called upon three times to rule on the same issue, that’s a pretty good indication it’s an issue that cries out for clarification. A good place to start would be a state constitutional amendment that clearly authorizes and defines the parameters of curfew laws.

Legal research is ongoing in Yakima and other Valley cities to follow the lead of Tacoma. The bottom-line goal is the same: Keep juveniles off the streets from midnight to 6 a.m. unless they are involved in clearly defined exceptions.

Yakima Police Chief Sam Granato … is quick to make a point we think is primary to this debate: A curfew law actually does more to protect young people than punish them. It’s an opportunity to do something about young people who often are about to get themselves in trouble because of bad choices.

But curfews are only tools. By themselves, they are not going to stop graffiti, malicious mischief and theft, but they can certainly improve the odds of those crimes not being committed by taking would-be perpetrators off the streets.

And that alone is worth the effort to craft new curfew ordinances that meet court and constitutional concerns.

They’re tools that are needed.