By Ashley McLeod, Staff Writer
Oct 23, 2015, 15:42
COLONIAL HEIGHTS — Youth in Colonial Heights could see a curfew change in the future, from midnight to 11 p.m. every day.
Colonial Heights Chief of Police Col. Jeffrey W. Faries, along with City Manager Thomas Mattis, presented the idea for revisiting current curfew regulations at the Oct. 13 City Council meeting. The reason: several complaints have been made from businesses surrounding South Park Mall of teens clouding parking lots and causing disturbances around the mall after hours.
“We’re getting calls for service where the mall wants them off the property because they’re causing a disturbance, so we’ll go out there and we end up being a lot of babysitters at the mall,” said Faries.
Faries stated that the teens will get out after seeing a movie at the theater and congregate in the parking lots of both the mall and its surrounding businesses. But the problem is a lot bigger than just a few kids.
“I’m not talking about just five or ten kids. We’ve experienced hundreds of youth out there,” said Faries.
While the mall has its own youth escort policy for minors, Faries said that the staffing for mall security is just not enough to handle the problem, along with other responsibilities had by the mall. Because the mall is privately owned property, the police only get involved with situations where if they are asked to get involved.
Discussion of changing the curfew regulations was brought up between Faries and Mattis around six months ago, but the problems began to clear up. As of recently, they have returned.
According to Faries, after speaking with surrounding jurisdictions about their curfew laws, neighboring areas have a curfew of 11 p.m. Colonial Heights is the only jurisdiction in the area to have a seven-day curfew of midnight for minors. There are exceptions to the curfew laws: if the parents know the location of the minor, if they are with an adult, or if they are working, the curfew does not apply to them.
Faries spoke with staff at Regal Cinemas and was told that in other jurisdictions, the theater will not sell tickets to anyone underage if the movie lets out after the curfew is in place.
“They will not sell a ticket where the movie ends after 11 because they agree and abide by the curfew of that locality,” said Faries.
Faries stated that when the teens get out of the movies, they congregate in the parking lots and cause disturbances at other businesses, interrupting those businesses in the process.
The size of the crowd cannot be handled by mall security, who then call the police, taking them from being able to serve in other capacities around the city.
“It’s a matter of quantity. When the theaters disgorge their viewers and the movies are over, there are literally hundreds and there just isn’t enough police personnel on hand to be able to safely manage it,” said Councilmen John Wood, who said even though he was not a fan of curfew laws, saw the curfew change as a positive precautionary measure that could stop an even bigger problem later on.
“If you want to have the environments of the mall in a friendly, safe, family-oriented atmosphere, you need to take precautionary measures that are going to ensure that the police have the authority to manage it and that we have the resources to manage it. Otherwise, the mall and the city are going to have to staff a larger and larger presence,” said Wood.
Faries said that the minors are from not only Colonial Heights, but from surrounding localities as well. The youths could be coming to Colonial Heights because of the later curfew, but Faries said he is unsure if this is fact, but that it was possible.
The council voted to address the curfew laws at a later meeting, at a date that has yet to be determined.
