D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a 15-day public emergency Thursday to reinstate and prolong the District’s restricted juvenile curfew, as D.C. Council debates whether or not to make it everlasting.
The curfew applies to all individuals youthful than 18 throughout the District between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. and is supposed “to address disorderly behavior, prevent violence, and protect public safety,” Bowser’s workplace stated in a information launch.
The emergency order additionally permits D.C.’s interim police chief to declare juvenile curfew zones any time police be taught that greater than eight minors are planning to collect after 8 p.m. “and the safety of the youth, residents or the public is endangered,” in accordance to the discharge.
It’s the regulation behind the numerous curfew zones in Navy Yard and the U Street corridor that D.C. has set over the previous a number of months.
“The safety of our young people is the most important thing to me as Chief of Police and members of the Metropolitan Police Department,” Jeffery W. Carroll, the interim chief, stated within the launch. “Curfew zones, and an 11:00 p.m. citywide curfew, have been instrumental in keeping our young people safe.”
Thursday’s emergency order is an extension of actions taken by the Council and the mayor final 12 months, when the Juvenile Curfew Emergency Amendment Act of 2025 amended a 1995 regulation.
The 2025 emergency laws allowed previous curfew guidelines to apply to 17-year-olds, and to be enacted on weekends, not simply weekdays.
But on Wednesday, that 2025 laws expired.
According to the discharge, “the extended curfew was successful in reducing fights, violence, and vandalism by young people” — although at the least one group of D.C. residents criticized the curfews, saying they aim and criminalize younger individuals, particularly Black teenagers.
That group, the Pan-African Community Action Group, rallied over the weekend to ask the Council to enable the curfews to expire.
It appears the mayor’s workplace stepped in with a response: Thursday’s order fills what would have been a lapse within the curfew between its expiration April 15, and April 21, when the Council is subsequent scheduled to vote on an extension to the regulation.
It’s not but clear how the Council will vote on the matter, however Bowser’s workplace left room for no matter adjustments they could make.
“The emergency declared by this Order shall be in effect for 15 calendar days unless rescinded, modified, or extended by Mayor’s Order or subsequent legislation,” the discharge stated.
