Cities across the country are putting teens on notice for Halloween weekend, rolling out curfews and crackdowns to head off the kind of chaos that unfolds during so-called teen takeovers.
From the Jersey Shore to suburban Atlanta, officials are setting curfews for teenagers and adding police patrols, many of them in places still reeling from takeovers that drew hundreds of teens and ended in fights and arrests.
In Oak Park, Illinois, the chief of police wrote that her agency is trying to prevent a similar Halloween teen takeover last year from happening again.
Last Halloween, an estimated 500 teens swarmed downtown Oak Park, where fights and gunshots erupted and police called in help from six neighboring agencies, according to a department memo.
Oak Park Chief of Police Shatonya Johnson said the agency will be increasing the amount of officers on shift during Halloween, as well as several more measures aimed at preventing another teen takeover.
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Adults in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago are taking matters into their own hands and plan to show out en masse on the streets to prevent large gatherings by teenagers. The group, called CollaBOOration, was established after a series of large Halloween gatherings from 2016 to 2019 where teen takeovers turned violent, according to Block Club Chicago.
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“What we’re really trying to do is establish a critical mass on the street, possibly before the Halloween festivities even start,” the group’s founder Bennie Currie said. “So when these large gatherings happen, like we’ve seen every year, we will already have taken over 53rd Street … we’ll be walking up and down in orange shirts and keeping in contact with one another.”
After 7 p.m. on Halloween, those under 16 in Covington, Georgia will be required to go home or have an adult with them if they’re in the city’s downtown area, which is outside Atlanta, according to CBS News.
According to News 12, the Long Branch, New Jersey, police department plans to strictly enforce a Halloween curfew for those under 17 on Oct. 30 and 31, which runs from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
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The curfew was set in response to hundreds of people gathering for a teen takeover in May, resulting in fights breaking out and six arrests.
National Police Association Spokeswoman Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith said it’s a “great idea” for these cities and police departments to be more proactive on Halloween, saying teen takeovers aren’t slowing down.
“On Halloween night, I can tell you from experience, our call volume goes up, you know, four or five, six times because people are calling because they’re because of fireworks. They’re calling because there’s a fight in a schoolyard. They’re calling because they can’t find their kid. There’s so many different things that people are calling the police for, and then you factor in this desire to have these large crowds of teenagers take over and, again, get it on social media,” Smith said.