Photograph by George Sakkestad
Officer Joe Deprima stopped a young man in Los Gatos for possible curfew violation last August. The youth was over 18 and not in violation of the law.
By Shari Kaplan
Los Gatos police are asking parents and young people under the age of 18 to remember that the town's curfew is 10 p.m. and that the police will enforce it.
"A lot of times, parents don't know about the curfew law," said Officer John Campos, who used to do foot patrol on and around N. Santa Cruz Avenue and saw how teenagers often congregate along the sidewalk and in front of certain businesses.
"If we don't get [officers] out there, they really don't clear out," Campos added. Even when teens see police in the area, they often do not disperse of their own volition, he added.
"Usually we're asking them. They'll go right to the limit of 10 p.m. If we don't say anything, they usually will just stay there. The attraction of downtown is that it's a good meeting place," Campos said.
If a youth does not heed police requests to go home the first time, officers may contact the young person's parents and have them pick up their child. In extreme cases, officers can take minors into custody, cite them at the police department and release them when parents come to pick them up.
Teen curfew-violation is mainly a problem on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, Campos said, and stems partially from San Jose teens hanging out with their friends in Los Gatos. Because San Jose's curfew is 11:30 p.m., that makes it difficult for Los Gatos youths to visit in town with their San Jose friends. Like Los Gatos, the neighboring cities of Saratoga and Campbell also have a 10 p.m. curfew.
On busy nights, two or three officers--usually on swingshift--patrol downtown on bicycles. Swingshift officers, who work from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., take to the bikes around 10 p.m. Not only is this when curfew begins, it's also when the graveyard-shift officers begin their night's work. The overlapping of shifts provides enough police presence in cars to allow for the officers temporarily using the bikes and enforcing curfew. There are still foot patrols as well.
According to Section 10.30.055 of the Los Gatos Town Code, it is "unlawful" and considered a misdemeanor for anyone under the age of 18 to "loiter, idle, wander, stroll or play" in, on, or around almost any public place between the hours of 10 p.m. and daylight, including public streets, alleys, parks, playgrounds, vacant lots, public buildings, places of amusement or "other unsupervised places in the Town."
Section 10.30.060 reiterates the same stipulations with the addition that it is also unlawful for a parent, guardian or other adult responsible for the minor to permit the minor to do any of these things.
The exceptions to the rules cover when a minor is accompanied by a parent, guardian or other responsible adult, when a minor is on an "emergency errand," doing "legitimate business directed by the minor's parent, guardian or other adult," or when the minor is "returning directly home" from a meeting or some sort of social or recreational activity.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 19, 1997.
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