Parents whose children are found in violation of the D.C. youth curfew will face criminal charges, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced at a news conference Friday.
Pirro said her office would immediately begin “aggressively prosecuting parents” under a statute of the D.C. Code that addresses “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.” If convicted, she said parents could face fines, mandatory classes or up to six months of jail time.
“Parents, if you don’t control your kids, the District will,” Pirro said.
“Teen takeovers” – large gatherings of teenagers that have at times erupted in violence – have become a fixation of Trump administration officials, D.C. leaders and local residents alike. Earlier this month, the D.C. Council voted 8-5 to extend the police chief’s power to declare targeted 8 p.m. curfew zones through 2028. But the legislation is not expected to go into effect until late summer, and the council has tabled a vote on the emergency version of the bill three times, leaving the District without a stricter policy when schools get out for summer. Opponents of the curfew – including mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George – have voiced concerns that it could lead to overpolicing of teens.
Without the emergency bill in place, the current youth curfew applies to teens under 17 and begins after midnight on weekends. Young people cannot be arrested for curfew violations, but are sometimes detained and taken to the city’s youth detention facility until a parent picks them up. Police have arrested youth at teen takeovers for other offenses.
D.C. police have at times devoted more than half of the department’s on-duty officers to dispelling teens from curfew zones, a police official told City Cast DC, a resource strain on a department already facing historically low staffing levels.
Pirro said D.C. police will be responsible for issuing parental citations whenever a minor’s curfew violation is connected to a teen takeover. D.C. police and the police union did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
The council needs nine votes to pass emergency legislation, but has not been able to secure the supermajority in past sessions. It keeps tabling the vote, seemingly in an effort to avoid officially rejecting the bill and giving federal officials ammo to call the council soft on crime.
But the inaction has not been well-received. Pirro has previously lambasted the council on national television, and again railed against councilmembers Friday.
“Mayor Muriel Bowser has repeatedly requested curfew zones and emergency measures while the D.C. Council refuses to deal with the problem,” Pirro said Friday. “Their lack of action creates an extremely dangerous situation for the people of the District and even the teens themselves.”
While Pirro has focused on so-called “young punks” in her public appearances, her office is not legally permitted to prosecute anyone under the age of 16. And even then, minors prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office must be facing serious charges like murder, sexual assault or burglary. Otherwise, the D.C. Attorney General’s Office handles youth offenders.
Pirro has been vocal about her ambitions to expand her office’s power, saying she would like the ability to prosecute children as young as 12 as adults. In the press conference Friday, she said though she cannot prosecute children, her position does not preclude her from going after their parents.
“The shame of this is that we are protecting your children, the ones who may join a teen takeover out of simple curiosity because you won’t,” Pirro said. “This doesn't require new legislation folks, it’s all there. And it sends a clear message to the parents that you must supervise your kids or face criminal consequences.”
