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Oak Harbor Ordinance No. 1024

Not an official copy.

City of Oak Harbor
Ordinance No. 1024

AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTIONS 6.33.020, 6.33.030, 6.33.060, 6.33.070, 6.33.090 OF THE OAK HARBOR MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTER 6.33 CONCERNING CURFEW ORDINANCE CONFORMING IT TO STATE LAW AND REENACTING OTHER PROVISIONS OF CHAPTER 6.33.

THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF OAK HARBOR does ordain as follows:

Section One. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.010 is hereby reenacted as follows:

6.33.010 Short title

Section Two. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.020 is hereby amended to read as follows:

6.33.020 Purposes and findings

(1)This is an update of Oak Harbor Municipal Code Chapter 6.33, adopted in 1985, and is in accordance with prevailing community standards; regulations for the conduct of minors on streets at night, effectively enforced, taught in the homes, internalized and adhered to for generations, all for the good of minors, for the public good, safety and welfare. The purpose of this ordinance is to conform to recent state law and preserve the public safety or reduce criminal acts by or against juveniles by establishing time and conditions when juveniles should not be present on the public streets, in the public parks, or in any other public place during specified hours.

(b)The City of Oak Harbor should, if possible, provide for the protection of minors from each other and from other persons, for the enforcement of parental control over and responsibility for children, for the protection of the general public, and for the reduction of the incidence of juvenile criminal activities; and

(c)There are few late night activities in Oak Harbor for children to engage in.

(d)Children have an obligation of being in school during day-time hours and late night activities are inconsistent with these obligations.

(e)A curfew for those under the age of eighteen (18) will be in the interest of the public health, safety, and general welfare and will help to attain the foregoing objectives and to diminish the undesirable impact of such conduct on the citizens of the City of Oak Harbor; and

(f)Criminal acts by or against juveniles are occurring at such rates as to tax the ability of the police to assure public safety; and

(g)The activity the City of Oak Harbor seeks to impact occurs between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.

(h)Removal of juveniles from the streets between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. will reduce the presence of juveniles on the streets during those hours, thus reducing the number of juvenile arrests and juvenile victims and thereby reducing the need for additional police officers; and

(i)In addition, removal of juveniles from public places after 11:00 p.m. will free up police to engage in traffic patrol for DWIs which increase after 11:00 p.m. and for security patrols dealing with burglary and other property crimes which are also more likely to occur in the late night hours. It is to be noted that police security patrolling is more necessary during the hours from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. simply because fewer people are awake and in a position to provide such security protection for themselves and others.

(j)The City of Oak Harbor has twenty-one percent (21%) more persons zero to twenty years of age than the state wide average. [ 35.8% of Oak Harbor's population is under twenty years old while 29.5% of the population of the State of Washington is under twenty years old. The Sourcebook of Zip Code Demographics , Ninth Edition, CACI Marketing Systems, 1994, page 343B. ] This leads to a significant drain on the resources of the police department to protect its citizens especially at night.

(k)The City of Oak Harbor has fewer financial resources to deal with criminal conduct because of several factors:

(ii)sales tax collections are low compared to other cities of similar size.

(iii)per capita income is low compared to other cities on Puget Sound.

(l)The United States Supreme Court has denied review of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decision which upheld the constitutionality of a juvenile curfew ordinance and provided guidelines and suggestions for enacting curfew ordinances in QUTB v. Strauss; and

(m)In July 1994, Section 503 of Chapter 7, Laws of 1994 First Extraordinary Session, Chapter 35A.11 and specifically, RCW 35A.11.210 which dealt with juvenile curfews. It restricted cities from using criminal penalties for curfew but also authorized police to take juveniles into custody for certain purposes.

(2)The Council finds that the curfew meets a very real local need and has been over the years a significant factor in minimizing juvenile delinquency, and should be updated and amplified in the light of Oak Harbor's local situation and facts.

(3)The goals of enacting this ordinance include, but are not limited to, the following:

(4)Any curfew ordinance adopted should comply with constitutional rights of minors and not unduly restrict the ability to associate, maintain jobs and participate in lawful activities. A narrowly drawn ordinance should be allowed for this to occur.

(5)Any curfew ordinance adopted should recognize the increasing ability and skill of juveniles to conduct their own affairs safely and maturely.

Section Three. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.030 is hereby amended and reenacted as follows:

6.33.030 Definitions. For the purposes of the curfew ordinance, the following terms, phrases, words, and their derivations, shall have the meaning given herein. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future, words in the plural number include the singular, and words in the singular number include the plural. The word "shall" is always mandatory and not merely directory.

(1)"City" means the City of Oak Harbor.

(2)"Minor" means any person under the age of 18, or, in equivalent phrasing often herein employed, any person 17 or less years of age.

(3)"Parent" means any person having legal custody of a minor:

(4)"Adult Extended Family Member" means grandparent, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, uncle, aunt, or first cousin who is not a minor and who is willing and available to care for the minor.

(5)"Remain" means to stay behind, to tarry and to stay unnecessarily upon the streets, and the other locations specified herein, including the congregating of groups (or of interacting minors) totaling four or more persons in which any minor involved would not be using the streets for ordinary or serious purposes such as mere passage or going home.

(6)"Street" means a way or place, of whatsoever nature, open to the use of the public as a matter of right for purposes of vehicular travel or, in the case of a sidewalk thereof, for pedestrian travel. The term "street" includes the legal right-of-way, including but not limited to the traffic lanes, the curb, the sidewalks whether paved or unpaved, and any grass plots or other grounds found within the legal right-of-way of a street. The term "street" applies irrespective of what it is called or formally named, whether alley, avenue, court, road or otherwise.

(7)"Time of night" referred to herein is based upon the prevailing standard of time, whether Pacific Standard Time or Pacific Daylight Savings Time, generally observed at that hour by the public in the name of the City of Oak Harbor, prima facie the time then observed in the police station.

(8)"Year of age" continues from one birthday, such as the seventeenth to (but not including the day of) the next, such as the eighteenth birthday, making it clear that 17 or less years of age is herein treated as equivalent to the phrase "under 18 years of age," the latter phrase in practice, unfortunately, having confused a number of persons into the mistaken thought that 18-year olds might be involved. Similarly, for example, 11 or less years of age means "under 12 years of age."

Section Four. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.040 is hereby reenacted as follows:

6.33.040 Curfew for minors

(1)At 11:00 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday; and

(2)One a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Section Five. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.050 is hereby amended and reenacted as follows:

6.33.050 Exceptions

(1)When accompanied by a parent;

(2)When accompanied by an adult authorized by a parent to take the parent's place in accompanying the minor for a designated period of time and purpose within a specified area;

(3)When exercising rights of speech, religion, or assembly protected by either the Constitution of the State of Washington or the Constitution of the United States;

(4)When the minor is on the right-of-way of the street or sidewalk of the place where such minor resides, or on the right-of-way of the street or sidewalk of either next door neighbor;

(5)When returning home, by a direct route from (and within 30 minutes of the termination of) a movie showing, a school activity, or an activity of a religious, charitable or educational organization (as defined under Federal Tax Law);

(6)For lawful employment;

(7)When the minor is, with consent of a parent, in a motor vehicle traveling interstate;

(8)When a minor is acting from necessity, self-defense or emergency which compels him to leave his home;

(9)The minor is declared emancipated by a court of law and is living independently of parent or guardian.

Section Six. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.060 is hereby amended to read as follows:

6.33.060 Parental Responsibility

Section Seven. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.070 is hereby amended to read as follows:

6.33.070 Police Procedures

(1)Investigation.

(b)In the absence of convincing evidence such as a birth certificate, a police officer on the street shall in the first instance use his or her best judgment in determining age.

(2)Decision to take into custody. A police officer of the City shall not take a minor in violation of this chapter into custody unless one or more of the following exist:

(3) Notice at the termination of the investigation.

(b)An officer taking a minor into temporary custody under this Ordinance shall inform the minor of the reason for such custody.

(4)Search incident to temporary custody. A minor only charged with an offense under this chapter shall be searched only for purposes of officer safety.

(5)Transportation after taking into custody.

(b)The officer releasing a minor into the custody of the parent shall inform the parent of the reason for taking the minor into custody and shall inform the minor and the parent of the nature and location of appropriate services available to their community.

(c)The officer may transport the minor to the police department, to the home of an adult extended family member or any other place designated by the Chief of Police

(ii)if it is not practical to transport the minor to his or her home; or

(iii)if there is no parent available to accept custody of the minor.

(d)The officer releasing a minor into the custody of an adult extended family member or a responsible adult shall inform the minor and the adult extended family member or responsible adult of the nature and location of appropriate services available to the community.

(6)Report. The officer making original contact with the minor shall within twenty-four hours file a written report.

(7)Custody at the police department.

(b)Minors, charged under this chapter alone, may not be held in detention cells at the Oak Harbor Police Department.

(8)Additional procedures. The Police Chief shall have the authority to make such other necessary rules for enforcement of this ordinance to assure that investigations and temporary custody of a minor are carried out in a constitutional manner.

Section Eight. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.080 is hereby reenacted as follows:

6.33.080 Continuing evaluation

Section Nine. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.090 is hereby amended to read as follows:

6.33.090 Violation -- Civil Penalty

(1)A violation of curfew in Section 6.33.040 shall be a civil infraction punishable by a fine not to exceed two hundred dollars; each thirty minutes after which a violation is found and in which a violation continues or additionally occurs shall be deemed to constitute a separate offense, and shall be punishable as a civil infraction by a fine not to exceed two hundred dollars.

(2)Violation of Section 6.33.060 shall be a civil infraction punishable by a fine not to exceed two hundred dollars.

Section Ten. Oak Harbor Municipal Code Section 6.33.100 is hereby reenacted as follows:

6.33.100 Construction

(1)Severability is intended throughout and within the provisions of the curfew ordinance. If any provision, including inter alia any exception, part, phrase or term, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the application to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby and the validity of the curfew ordinance in any and all other respects shall not be affected thereby. The city council does not intend a result that is absurd, impossible of execution or unreasonable. It is intended that the curfew ordinance be held inapplicable in such cases, if any, where its application would be unconstitutional. A constitutional construction is intended and shall be given.

(2)Council does not intend to violate the Constitution of the State of Washington or the Constitution of the United States.

(3)The city council further intends to have this chapter not conflict with the applicable state laws regulating the conduct of juveniles.

Section Eleven. Severability. If any provision of this Ordinance or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the Ordinance or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.

Section Twelve. Effective Date. This Ordinance shall be in full force and effect five days after its passage and publication as required by law.

PASSED by the City Council and approved by its Mayor this _____ day of ________________, 19___.

THE CITY OF OAK HARBOR

____________________________________
Mayor

Attest:

______________________________
City Clerk

Approved as to Form:

______________________________
City Attorney

Published:__________________

Not an official copy.

City of Oak Harbor Ordinance No. 1024

City of Oak Harbor
Ordinance No. 1024