Jun 28, 2008 8:31 am US/Central
Brooklyn Park Cops Picking Up Kids Out Past Curfew
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (WCCO) ―
-
-
Officers will soon start bringing teenagers who stayed out too late to Zanewood Recreation Center in Brooklyn Park.
CBS
Police in two Minnesota cities are busy cracking down on kids out after curfew.
Officers will soon start bringing teenagers who stayed out too late to Zanewood Recreation Center in Brooklyn Park. They'll sit in the gym there until their parents pick them up.
Police hope the sweep makes the streets and the kids safer.
Curfews are designed to make sure kids don't get in trouble late at night, but in Brooklyn Park it's not just about keeping kids from doing bad things.
"A lot of times what the statistics are showing us and what the officers out there working are telling us is that the kids are actually becoming the victims of these crimes," said Captain Craig Enevoldsen of the Brooklyn Park Police.
The majority of violent crimes in the city of Brooklyn Park happen between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. That's why Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center will be picking up kids breaking curfew the rest of the summer.
Sixteen-year-old Thomas Freeman got caught in the first sweep earlier this month.
"It's good that they are trying to get kids off the street but at the same time it wasn't worth it because my house was just two minutes away," said Thomas.
Hennepin County curfew requires kids under 12 be home by 9 p.m., 12-to-14-year-olds by 10 p.m. and 15-to-17-year-olds by 11 p.m.
Thirteen-year-old Hawa Sheriff said she knows better than to break curfew. She spends evenings working with other kids at a rec center. Still, she doesn't like the idea of all kids getting lumped together during a sweep.
"They could be out there for bad reasons but they could also be out there for good reasons. For somebody to just be taken and swept up for ... not doing nothing wrong ... is not a good thing," she said.
The kids will have to stay at the curfew center until their parents pick them up. If no one shows up by 4 a.m., police will take them home.
While they're there, police will talk to them about why they were out past curfew.
The sweeps are just part of the strategy. The city of Brooklyn Park is also offering more evening recreation hours to give kids something to do.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
