[Ord. 1105, 12/16/2008]
This Part 5 shall be known and may be cited as the "Curfew Ordinance."
[Ord. 1105, 12/16/2008]
The background of this Part and the legislative intention of
the Borough Council in enacting it are as follows:
A. To promote the general welfare and protect the general public through
the reduction of juvenile violence and crime within the Borough.
B. To promote the safety and well-being of the Borough's youngest
citizens, persons 17 years of age and under, whose inexperience renders
them particularly vulnerable to becoming participants in unlawful
activities, including but not limited to unlawful drug activities,
and to being victimized by older perpetrators of crime.
C. To foster and strengthen parental responsibility for children.
[Ord. 1105, 12/16/2008]
For the purposes of this Part 5, the following terms, phrases,
words and their derivations shall have the meanings given herein.
When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present
tense include the future, words in the plural number include the singular,
and words in the singular number include the plural. The word "shall"
is always mandatory and not merely directory.
ADULT
A person 18 years of age or older.
BOROUGH
The Borough of Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
CURFEW HOURS
The hours of 10:00 p.m. through 5:00 a.m., prevailing time,
on Sunday through Thursday, and 12:00 midnight through 5:00 a.m.,
prevailing time, on Friday and Saturday.
EMERGENCY
Unforeseen circumstances, or the status or condition resulting
therefrom, requiring immediate action to safeguard life, limb or property.
The term includes but is not limited to fires, natural disasters,
wars, automobile accidents, or other similar circumstances.
ESTABLISHMENT
Any place within the Borough to which the public is invited,
including but not limited to any place of amusement or entertainment.
With respect to such establishment, the term "operator" shall mean
any person and any firm, association, partnership or corporation (and
the members, officers or partners thereof) conducting or managing
that establishment.
MINOR
Any person under the age of 18, in equivalent phrasing often
herein employed, any person 17 or less years of age, which person
has not been emancipated by a final order of a court of competent
jurisdiction.
OFFICER
A police or other law enforcement officer charged with the
duty of enforcing the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and/or
ordinances of the Borough.
OPERATOR
Any person and any firm, association, partnership or corporation
(and the members, officers or partners thereof) conducting or managing
an establishment.
PARENT
Any person having legal custody of a minor, including but
not limited to:
A.Â
A person who is a minor's biological or adoptive parent,
including either parent if custody is shared under a court order or
agreement.
B.Â
A person who is the biological or adoptive parent with whom
a minor regularly resides.
C.Â
A person appointed as a legal guardian of the minor by a final
order of a court of competent jurisdiction or who has been granted
custody of the minor by a final order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
D.Â
A person 18 years of age or older standing in loco parentis to assume the care or physical custody of the child as authorized by an individual listed in Subsections
A through
C, inclusive, of this definition or as circumstances otherwise indicate.
PERSON
An individual or entity charged with care or custody of the
minor, including but not limited to a county children and youth agency,
halfway house, treatment facility, etc.
PUBLIC PLACE
Any place to which the public or a substantial group of the
public has access, including but not limited to streets, rights-of-way,
highways, roads, sidewalks, alleys, avenues, parks, and/or the common
areas of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transportation
facilities and establishments.
REMAIN
Includes the following:
A.Â
To linger, stay behind, tarry, be or remain, or stay at or upon
a place;
B.Â
To fail to leave a place when requested to do so by an officer
or by the owner, operator or other person in control of that place.
TEMPORARY CARE FACILITY
A nonlocked, nonrestrictive shelter at which minors may wait,
under visual supervision, to be retrieved by a parent. No minors waiting
in such facility shall be handcuffed and/or secured (by handcuffs
or otherwise) to any stationary object.
YEARS OF AGE
Continues from one birthday, such as the 17th, to (but not
including the day of) the next, such as the 18th birthday, making
it clear that 17 or less years of age is equivalent to the phrase
"under 18 years of age."
[Ord. 1105, 12/16/2008; as amended by Ord. 1170, 3/16/2021]
Any person who shall violate the provisions of this Part 5 shall,
upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a fine not less than
$250 or exceeding $1,500 and costs or to imprisonment for a term not
to exceed 30 days.
[Ord. 1105, 12/16/2008]
From time to time upon its request, the Borough Council may
require reports from the Chief of Police as to the effectiveness of
the provisions of this Part. Such report shall include the following
matters at a minimum:
A. The practicality of enforcing the provisions of this Part and any
problems with enforcement identified by the Police Department;
B. The impact and cost of enforcing the provisions of this Part;
C. Other data and information which the Police Department believes to
be relevant in assessing the effectiveness of the provisions of this
Part; and
D. Information from citizens regarding whether the provisions of this
Part have been administered and enforced fairly, including information
regarding the age, gender and race of those charged or detained.
[Ord. 1105, 12/16/2008]
The provisions of this Part are severable, and if any paragraph,
subparagraph, clause, section, subsection, sentence, phrase or part
thereof shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to
be illegal, invalid or unconstitutional, such judgment or decision
shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof but shall
be confined in its operation and application to the paragraph, subparagraph,
clause, section, subsection, sentence, phrase or part thereof rendered
illegal, invalid or unconstitutional. It is hereby declared to be
the intent of the Borough Council that this Part would have been adopted
if such illegal, invalid or unconstitutional paragraph, subparagraph,
clause, section, subsection, sentence, phrase or part thereof had
not been included herein.