One other element of the emergency legislation that has had a measurable impact on crime is the Mayor’s authority to adjust curfew hours. In late July, as you know, the Mayor exercised that authority and set the curfew from 10 pm to 6 am, seven days a week. Under normal conditions, the curfew begins at 12 midnight during the summer, and at 11 pm on school nights during the rest of the year. Just this week, the Mayor extended the 10 pm start of the curfew through October 19, the date the current emergency legislation expires.
As I noted earlier, the alternative curfew have served to dramatically increase the number of curfew citations issued by our police officers. In fact, between July 12 and September 24, just over half of the 3,000 curfew citations were issued between 10 pm and midnight. But our goal is not to keep our curfew centers busy. It is to keep DC’s youth off the streets so that they will be safer and less likely to become involved in delinquent or criminal activity.
Comparing the 59 days prior to the alternative curfew hours going into effect to the 56 days after the change, we have documented reductions in both victimization and offending involving curfew-age juveniles. For example the number of curfew-age victims of violent crime on public space during the 10 pm-to-6 am time period declined from 10 to 5, when comparing the pre- and post- time periods, a reduction of 50 percent. Similarly, the number of curfew-age juveniles arrested for crimes committed during the curfew hours plunged 43 percent, from 89 to 50.
Our goal with curfew enforcement has never been to “hassle” young people or single them out for some type of discriminatory treatment. Our goal has been, and always will be, to help protect our young people from crime, as either victims or offenders. Even with the earlier curfew hours, we have not been able to prevent all such occurrences. The fatal shooting of 14-year-old Andre Pee, at 11:15 pm last Sunday night in Congress Heights, demonstrates that a curfew will never completely eliminate juvenile involvement in crime. But our data shows pretty clearly that the earlier curfew is making a difference in promoting the safety of our young people.