Chicago City Council committee to resume debate of controversial "snap curfew" ordinance

A Chicago City Council committee may vote Tuesday on a highly-debated proposal to allow police officials to impose temporary curfews anywhere in the city on as little as 30 minutes' notice in an effort to curb teen takeovers.
Tuesday's meeting comes after the Public Safety Committee last month delayed a planned vote on the proposal backed by the panel's chairman, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), following several hours of intense debate.
The ordinance would allow Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, with the consent of Mayor Brandon Johnson's deputy mayor for community safety, to activate "snap curfews" anywhere in the city with at least 30 minutes' notice in order to curb teen takeovers.
The goal would be to impose targeted curfews in specific areas when mass gatherings are expected or underway, and there is reason to believe they could result in criminal activity or otherwise pose a risk to public safety.
Civil rights lawyers and other opponents of the measure have warned that the proposal is unconstitutional because the reasons for imposing targeted curfews are too vague, and the measure would invite costly lawsuits.
Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) argued such targeted curfews "could potentially lead to profiling and lead to limitations of people just exercising their freedoms of speech."
Hopkins and the ordinance's supporters disagree, but co-sponsors Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) and Jason Ervin (28th) – who chair the influential Finance Committee and Budget Committee, respectively – said last month that they wanted to give more time for critics of the measure to review the latest version of the ordinance before any vote.
Hopkins agreed to put off a vote on his proposal last month in hopes of bringing alders back to hear from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights advocates before voting on the ordinance in May.
If the committee passes the ordinance on Tuesday, it would still have to go to the full council to be approved.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has repeatedly said he is concerned about the constitutionality of Hopkins' proposal.
"If the City Council moves forward with an ordinance that gives my administration and the Police Department the ability to implement a curfew, look, I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm not concerned about the constitutionality around it," Johnson said on Tuesday.
The mayor said he wants to do more than simply prevent large teen gatherings from turning violent, "but that we're working together collectively to provide safe spaces for people to have an experience in Chicago that they should be able to enjoy. It's their right."
"If we don't give young people real activity, if we don't help them find their purpose, we're just going to find ourselves in a tailspin. This is about not just prevention, but this is also about the investments, and that's why I'm very much focused on giving youth voices' power, but also that we're responding with resources as well," he said.

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