ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has announced a “juvenile curfew” will take effect during overnight hours for Friday and Saturday this weekend.
A citywide juvenile curfew is in effect from Midnight to 5 a.m. for the next two nights, covering the overnight hours from Friday into Saturday and Saturday into Sunday.
“Our downtown is not a playground, and our officers will be out,” said SLMPD in a post via social media. “Parents will be held responsible for the behavior of their children.”
SLMPD’s announcement of the curfew was brief, but noted that parents and guardians could be subject to fines for curfew violations.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a “juvenile” is defined as a person who has not attained his or her 18th birthday, so the curfew is presumably in effect for individuals aged 17 and younger.
The curfew takes effect after St. Louis police arrested dozens of people over the Fourth of July weekend, mostly teenagers, for disturbances that included setting off fireworks, possessing guns and resisting arrest, among other things.
Police expressed that Fourth of July weekend enforcement efforts came from an effort to maintain public safety and crackdown on illegal activities.
This is a developing story. FOX 2 will update as more information becomes available.
NOTE: Video attached to this story is of FOX2’s coverage of Fourth of July weekend arrests.
