Anyone under 18 years old lingering in one of Little Rock’s three entertainment districts without a parent or guardian after 9 p.m. will be violating curfew, the city’s board of directors voted Tuesday.
With the exception for young people traveling for work, minors could be issued a citation for being in the River Market, SoMa or the entertainment district in the Heights neighborhood between the hours of 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. The curfew also applies to city parks that butt up against the entertainment districts. The Little Rock Police Department will enforce the curfew as it does the existing citywide curfew for people under 18, which runs from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and from midnight to 5 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
The ordinance at hand was first presented at the Little Rock Board of Directors meeting on June 6. At the meeting, Director Antwan Phillips urged his fellow directors to delay the vote because the ordinance was added to the agenda without being discussed the previous week, as is the board’s usual system. After quite a bit of back-and-forth discussion, Director Dean Kumpuris suggested a special-called meeting take place June 13. Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. followed that suggestion, which led directors to the vote on Tuesday.
The vote went quickly. The city clerk read the ordinance three times without any requests for discussion from directors. It wasn’t until after the curfew and its emergency clause was approved that Directors Phillips and Ken Richardson sparked discussion based on their opposing votes.
Phillips said he was generally supportive of a curfew but thought the 9 p.m. start was an overreach. A 17-year-old out on a date downtown or grabbing a late-night ice cream at Loblolly Creamery would be in violation, he said. Phillips proposed that the curfew would be better if it started when restaurants in the areas stopped selling food.
“The solution doesn’t fit the problem,” Phillips said.
Richardson also argued that there was no data to support the need for the curfew, and it was based on a perception of downtown. He said directors didn’t receive a presentation from the LRPD on arrest or crime data for the targeted areas. Richardson speculated that if he had brought forth a similar ordinance for a different area in the city, the directors would have required him to show ample evidence for a need.
Director Dean Kumpuris, who has long supported revitalization efforts in the River Market, was a prominent voice Tuesday in support of the ordinance. He said the curfew was a “sane, proactive step” to ensure the potential for crime is lowered. Kumpuris also said that having so many young people in the entertainment districts is like a “potential hand grenade” waiting to go off.
Director Lance Hines also voiced his support for the ordinance and asked for meeting point of order multiple times, which can be a way to bring the discussion to a close.
Amendments to the ordinance can be made in the future. Kumpuris offered that the curfew could be changed if it’s found to be too restrictive. Phillips countered that if directors could fix something ahead of time, they should do that.
No community members were present Tuesday to speak about the ordinance. The curfew is effective immediately.