Albany City Commissioners are considering a stricter curfew for special events, but their proposal would restrict the movement of some adults even in daylight hours. The city attorney insists that is legal.
But after fights broke out at the 4th of July celebration, and with Flint Fest coming up in October, commissioners want something done now. Recent fights involving mostly teenagers prompted this curfew proposal.
Commissioners say something has to be done about unsupervised kids at public events. The question is, does this proposal go too far?
After fights broke out downtown at the 4th of July fireworks event, the Albany Police Department and the City Commission are considering ways to prevent instances like this from happening again.
City Commissioner Christopher Pike says, "One of our main concerns that we have downtown when we do events is our ability to maintain and control the crowd."
They are considering different options to address the problem of teens being left unsupervised.
Albany Police Chief John Proctor says, "After reviewing that incident, we found that there are many people who from outside of the city, drop their kids off at that event and left."
Right now, anyone under 18 must be at home or with a guardian 21 or over after 11:00 PM during the week and after midnight Friday and Saturday.
But commissioners are considering an even stricter curfew for special events.
The proposed special curfew starts earlier, ends later, and would affect more people. It would prevent anyone under the age of 21 from being unsupervised from 6:00 PM to 12:00 PM during those specials events like Flint Fest, Mardi Gras, and 4th of July.
One ASU student says that could affect other college students who are not yet 21.
Chanae Forrest, ASU student says "I don't think that increasing the strictness of it, as far as raising the age limit would be appropriate, enforce the law that you have, that would be a better solution to the problem."
She says her friend was shot when fights broke out at the 4th of July event.
Forrest says, "There was a bit of violence that popped off in their area and then they ended up getting caught up in it."
Albany City Commissioner Christopher Pike says he realizes something needs to be done but he doesn't know if a stricter curfew is the answer.
Pike says, "That is something that could affect people who are just hanging out that are just law abiding citizens and I think that we need to look at other ways."
Which could prevent some people from attending the events all together.
Chief Proctor says he also wants to offer a program to educate parents about the importance of staying in touch and knowing where their children are at all times.
The commission is scheduled to vote on the special events curfew at their meeting September 25th.
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