Politics & Government

Silver Spring Community Skeptical About Proposed Teen Curfew

County Council President Valerie Ervin (D) said recreation programs designed to keep kids engaged have sustained too many cuts.

Silver Spring residents got a chance to address their concerns about the proposed teen curfew law to the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board Monday.

The controversial law was  by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) in mid-July and has since been the center of many community meetings.

Montgomery County Council President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) helped to open the discussion with about 50 community members, including local officials, in attendance. She said her main goal is to evaluate what the underlying cause of the issue truly is.

Find out what's happening in Silver Springwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“To get [to] the root cause of the problem, that means we have to shell very deeply into the situation that we find ourselves in,” Ervin said.

The main concerns centered around infringing on people’s first amendment right to freedom of assembly and implementation of a law that doesn’t solve the main cause of crime in the county.

Find out what's happening in Silver Springwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Thomas Nephew, co-founder of the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition, said that his group is skeptical of the legislation. Even with the revisions to the law along with the Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger’s unofficial curb crime list, Nephew said he is still concerned about the impact.

“A measure like this punishes all kids—restricts the freedom of all youth in the future—for the misdeeds of a few in the past, and that’s just not right,” said Nephew.

Ervin admitted that previous cuts to the Montgomery County Recreation Department budget are one of the reasons kids have idle time and aren’t occupied, and that this will have to be addressed in the following budget.

“We’ve cut the recreation department to the bone; there’s practically no recreation department left in Montgomery County," Ervin said. "We cut programs that were designed to help kids be engaged between the hours of 3 and 7 p.m., [and they] are practically gone. You got to cut somewhere, and you don’t cut these programs.”

Some residents, including James H. Zepp, who is a former director of the Training and Technical Assistance Center for Justice Research and Statistics Association, brought their expertise to the discussion.

Zepp said that 20 years of criminal justice research illustrates that curfews aren't effective against thwarting crime and also proves to be a drain on the resources for the police department.

“It remains a politically popular solution because it’s something that doesn’t cost much to adopt unlike providing services to people,” Zepp said. “The other side is that you need to be proactive as far as managing this nighttime economy entertainment district.”

The Montgomery County Council will start a work session to evaluate the proposed teen curfew law Thursday, Sept. 15, at the County Council Building, which is located at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.

Ervin said this process will take at least a few months.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here