While the specifics of a juvenile curfew haven’t been ironed out, Raleigh city leaders say it may not just be the kids who face punishment.

“A lot of times those ordinances also give some teeth to be able to hold parents accountable,” Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said. “Making sure that their children are not out on the street late at night causing harm. I think that’s part of what we’re looking for as well.”

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It will be well over a month before an official ordinance could take effect. The city wants to make sure there is community input and care in crafting an ordinance to ensure no civil rights issues arise or something overly punitive is created.

“It is an opportunity for us to be able to make sure that our young people are at home and safe,” Freeman said. “That is what all of us want at the end of the day. For our young people to be able to be safe and we just think this is an important component of that.”

At least nine people were injured, including several juveniles, as a result of incidents at Brier Creek Commons and Glenwood South over Fourth of July weekend due to multiple shootings and fights. Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce told City Council Tuesday, they found multiple juveniles in possession of firearms.

One of those juveniles, a 16-year-old, was upgraded to secure custody on charges of felony rioting, discharging a firearm within city limits and possessing a firearm as a minor. That juvenile will remain in a juvenile detention facility while their case processes.

But there were only four juveniles taken into custody by police. Compare that to 29 adults who would not be impacted by a curfew.

Specifically, 17 of those 29 adults were older than 18, but under 21. They can’t gain access to the nightlife businesses all along Glenwood South. Which raised a big question by Boyce.

“Why are they there?” Boyce asked. “What can they do?”

But by the book, there is no legal reason they can’t be outside. A curfew wouldn’t change that.

“That’s not a solution,” Derek Hartsfield of Raleigh said. “Addressing the state of how people live, the things they have to deal with, the things they don’t have access to.”

Hartsfield tells WRAL that what he has seen this past weekend has disgusted him to the point that he’s seriously considering leaving the area. He thinks it’s a failure of city leaders, communities, and parents to support kids.

“You want your children to be treated like children, but they’re acting like something else,” Hartsfield said. “And you get upset when they’re treated like something else. I blame the community, leaders and parents.”

“Curfews give us a tool to be able to make sure that kids are at home with their parents and that they are safe,” Freeman said. “We have to have parents who are going to be engaged with their young people, with the teenagers and that they’re going to have to stand up and take a role in making sure that their kids stay safe and that they stay out of trouble.”

Freeman explains, the system needs more teeth when it comes to juvenile law, beyond adding a curfew. In 2019, the Raise the Age act kept 16 and 17-year-olds out of the adult legal system.

“It is very difficult to take a juvenile into custody right now under state law, or secure custody laws are just very challenging,” Freeman said. “You have older kids who are committing more serious violent offenses and you still have laws that really were designed to handle much less serious situations. We’re not trying to throw juveniles under the jail, but we do need to be able to get our hands on them long enough to be able to change their trajectory and get them on a better path.”

Something a curfew could at least start the process of.

Freeman says city leaders will be careful to ensure the language in the ordinance isn’t too broad or infringe on any civil liberties. Chief Boyce said a curfew ordinance would be applied as a secondary infraction once they have made contact with someone under 18-years-old.

“It doesn’t mean that every time somebody is out on the street beyond an hour that we’re going to end up locking them up or that they’re going to be charged,” Freeman said. “It does give law enforcement the ability to try to step in and at least ask questions and try and make sure that that young person is being safe.”