BAY HEAD — Youngsters will be able to stay out past dark, as the mayor and council let a proposed ordinance die that would have set a curfew in town.
The ordinance would have set a curfew for anyone under the age of 18 starting at 10 p.m. for most of the year. While the ordinance was on the agenda for a second reading and public hearing, the council did not motion to approve the ordinance at its meeting on May 5.
Councilwoman Jennifer Barnes-Gambert said many members of the public had reached out to the mayor and council, expressing concern over the ordinance.
“The town got a lot of feedback from a lot of different people regarding this ordinance, so we got the message that there is a lot of discontent with it,” said the councilwoman.
“The police department came to us and indicated that they had concerns and wanted basically to make sure the town is as safe as it possibly can be. One of the concerns they had was with regard to juveniles, which is where this draft of the curfew ordinance began,” said Councilwoman Barnes-Gambert.
The councilwoman then invited Police Chief John LaSpina to speak from the police perspective.
“The problem we wanted to address was the possibility of pop-up parties in other Shore communities over the past few years. We have dodged a couple of bullets the last three years with large-scale events being organized online as Bay Head beach as its destination. Nothing came of that, so we were lucky,” said the chief. “Getting with (Councilwoman Barnes-Gambert) and drafting this curfew ordinance, we wanted to put something in place that actually gives us some teeth to act in a law enforcement capacity when we do have a large-scale event like that that we need to disperse.”
Chief LaSpina further said, “Going the ordinance route for the curfew would have helped deter this situation…I know a lot of parents were concerned about their kids riding home from their friend’s house on their bicycle. That was not our intent, we are not looking for every single juvenile who is riding their bike after 10 p.m. where the police are going to stop them and call their parents.”
Council President Dennis Shaning asked the chief if it would be more appropriate to instead have a “pop-up party” ordinance instead of a curfew ordinance, to which the chief said that would be a possibility.
Borough Attorney Jean Cipriani added a couple points of clarification as to why the ordinance was framed this way. She said, “There is a state statute that authorizes juvenile curfew ordinances and it is very specific on what you can and can’t do with a curfew ordinance. So if there is a curfew ordinance, it has to be in this form.”
She said as far as pop-up parties, both her offices and the courts in New Jersey are very responsive for authorizing police departments to disperse these parties if they arise.
“In New Jersey, you cannot have a loitering ordinance that criminalizes gathering in large groups,” said Cipriani. “When the chief talks about being hamstrung, that is one of the things that makes it difficult.”
When time came for the council to vote on the ordinance, no motion was made and therefore the ordinance died. However, the mayor and council said they will be working with Cipriani and the chief to better find a solution that will allow Bay Head to tackle any problems without causing the residents concern.
Mayor Bill Curtis said, “I want to look at this a lot more because it really goes well beyond what the chief was intending to do.”
Cipriani added, “We are going to have to approach the problem in a way that is not a curfew ordinance, because this is what a curfew ordinance in New Jersey must look like. If that is the problem we are trying to solve, we have to come at it in a different direction.”
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