MOBILE COUNTY, Alabama — With students back on campus for the new school year, both Prichard and Mobile have reinstated youth curfews meant to keep teenagers in the classroom during the day and off the streets at night, officials in both cities confirmed this week.
Prichard’s rules take effect this weekend
In Prichard, curfew enforcement for minors began at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, requiring anyone 18 or younger without a legal exemption to be accompanied by a parent or guardian during specified hours. According to the city’s intergovernmental affairs office, the ordinance sets separate nighttime and daytime windows, since young people are expected to be in school during the day and supervised at night. Minors caught outside those hours are taken to the city’s curfew center at the police department and can only be released to a parent or legal guardian.
A proactive approach to crime prevention
Prichard’s police chief described the curfew as a proactive tool for preventing juvenile crime, noting that teenagers found wandering the streets during school hours are statistically more likely to become involved in criminal activity. Violations of the ordinance can bring a verbal warning, fines or, in more serious cases, other penalties. Under the current schedule, nighttime curfew in most of the city runs from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, with a slightly different overnight window in the city’s downtown district and an extended overnight curfew running from just after midnight to 6 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The daytime curfew runs from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on school days, matching Mobile County Public School hours.
Mobile’s curfew runs on a similar schedule
In Mobile, police enforce a comparable set of hours, with a daytime curfew also running from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and a nighttime curfew from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., according to the Mobile Police Department’s public information officer. Officers who spot a school-age person out during daytime curfew hours are expected to ask why they are not in school and, when appropriate, help get them there. During nighttime hours, officers first try to reach a parent or responsible adult before taking a juvenile to the city’s curfew center as a last resort.
A downward trend in violations
Mobile police said the department logged 21 curfew violations in August of the previous year, with two of those minors ultimately taken to the curfew center. Officials said the overall number of curfew violators has trended downward in recent years. Mobile’s curfew ordinance has been in place since 2011 and was extended in 2012 through the end of 2014, though city officials said it remains unclear what will happen to the ordinance once that extension expires.
Both cities frame the curfews as a shared effort between police, schools and families to keep students safe and in class as the academic year gets underway across the county.