Curfew violators find lights out on LV Strip

A 16-year-old Hispanic girl with cold, hard eyes and an attitude that irritated a police officer standing over her sat indignantly on the concrete step in front of a convenience store on Las Vegas Boulevard South.

Her hands were cuffed behind her as she watched two Metro Police bike-patrol officers interviewing two "home boys" from Los Angeles, companions she met earlier in the evening at the Circus Circus hotel-casino.

It was after 9 p.m., the hour law-abiding juveniles on the Strip suddenly become criminals.

The angry Hispanic girl was a curfew violator -- her second offense.

If the paddy wagon had not already been full, she probably would have been on her way to juvenile detention.

Because of her attitude, the officers were tempted to call a patrol car to come get her.

"You gave a false name and wrong phone number; now you go to jail," Officer Scott Martini threatened her. "Your attitude better change very quick."

It didn't.

If she had been honest when Martini and his partner, Craig Ziel of the Southeast Area Command, stopped her on suspicion of curfew violation, they may have been less stern with her.

The girl's new-found friends were released -- they were older than 18 -- and they quickly disappeared into the throng of tourists routinely flowing up and down the Strip.

"We could have charged them with contributing to the delinquency of a minor," Martini said.

After several attempts to reach the girl's parents, the officers finally succeeded in locating her father, who came to pick her up.

She was waiting with a citation in hand requiring the parents to accompany her to juvenile court.

Matini and Ziel are among a dozen Metro bike-patrol officers who keep law and order on the Strip.

To them, curfew violators are an annoyance -- ill-fitted cogs that slow down the wheel of commerce on what is easily one of the busiest streets in the nation.

The squad may write anywhere from 200 to 250 citations per night, which includes curfew as well as traffic and other violations.

The officers probably could write that many tickets for curfew violations alone.

But there are plenty of laws to be enforced to keep the Strip moving, though it may be at a snail's pace.

When traffic is at its peak, it may take two hours to get from one end of the Strip to the other.

One way of thinning the herd is to keep the number of youngsters to a minimum by either running them off or running them in.

"The Strip is the lifeblood of Las Vegas," Martini said.

But it is only one part of the city.

Clark County enforces two sets of curfew laws -- one for the Strip and one for the rest of the area.

Make a wrong turn near the Strip at the wrong time and a juvenile may become a criminal.

Curfew laws, excluding the Strip, are uniform throughout the county.

Anyone under 18 must be off the public streets between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. Friday, Saturday, legal holidays and summer vacation.

The Strip curfew is 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Friday, Saturday and legal holidays. The area includes Las Vegas Boulevard between Sahara and Hacienda avenues and any streets that cross the boulevard.

It also applies to some streets behind either side of the Strip.

Juveniles out during those times either must be with parents or guardians or on their way to or from work.

Countywide in 1997, police issued 1,621 curfew citations to males and 1,082 to females, compared to 1990 figures of 1,974 males and 1,225 females.

Generally curfews are created to stop juvenile crime and to keep juveniles from being victimized.

Though most people tend to favor curfews, the Juvenile Justice Bulletin of April 1996 pointed out that there are those who perceive it as violating the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and 14th amendments of the Constitution.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, religion and peaceful assembly; the Fourth protects a person against unreasonable searches and seizures; the Fifth guarantees the right to due process; the Ninth guarantees the right to privacy; and the 14th protects a person against the deprivation of liberty without due process.

However, according to the Bulletin, cities that have withstood constitutional challenges to their curfew laws have done so by demonstrating there is a compelling state interest for the curfew and by narrowly tailoring the means to achieve the law's objective.

A 1997 survey by the Bulletin revealed that 276 major cities had nighttime curfews and 76 cities also had a daytime curfew.

Sally Huncovsky, probation supervisor at Youth Services, says most juvenile crimes occur during the day, not during the hours now targeted by curfews.

Clark County Deputy District Attorney Bob Teuton, in charge of the juvenile division, said that several Los Angeles-area communities have daytime curfews and that Clark County is considering implementing one as well.

Teuton said a study of those communities found a dramatic drop in juvenile crime in 10 major categories.

Although a direct correlation between the daytime curfew and the crime drop can't be shown because other factors may have been involved as well, Teuton said, the curfew appears to have made an impact.

Teuton said an attempt was made during the last Nevada legislative session to include a daytime curfew in a school truancy bill, but it failed.

Another attempt probably will be made in the next session, according to Teuton.

The primary goal of a daytime curfew would be to keep kids in school. However, in Clark County, where there are year-round schools and classes that meet at different hours, implementing such a law could be difficult.

"It will be difficult unless students are issued ID cards," Teuton said.

Teuton said juvenile crime has leveled off over the past four or five years, but with a record number of elementary schools being built, he thinks a law must be on the books to prepare for the next wave of potential juvenile offenders.

According to the Juvenile Justice Bulletin, the cornerstone of effective curfew programs is "creative community involvement that works to transform the juvenile curfew from a reactive, punitive response to a proactive intervention against the root cause of juvenile delinquency and victimization."

Huncovsky, who has a 15-year-old daughter of her own, likes the idea of curfews.

"I don't have a problem with it," she said. "I don't think curfew affects a great number of kids, and I like it because it's a tool that helps us."

Paul Parish, a probation officer with Youth Services, believes most kids are basically good kids.

"The degree of violence is much greater than when I started here 27 years ago," Parish said. "The level of violence and the sophistication have risen -- but it's a small percentage. The majority of the kids are just as good. Only about 10 percent are bad, the rest are good."

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