Starting Nov. 1 in Charlotte, anyone younger than 18 will have to be out of public spaces between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. — with some exceptions.
Kids and teens can still be out if they’re traveling to or from work, school, sporting events or religious activities; running an errand for a parent; accompanied by a parent or guardian; or exercising certain First Amendment rights.
The Charlotte City Council approved the new rules Monday as a 10-month pilot program that will run through August 2027.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Estella Patterson said the goal is not to arrest teenagers, but to prevent “teen takeovers” and reduce the number of young people who commit or become victims of crime.
“I do not want to see any teenager end up in prison, jail, because of a curfew violation,” Patterson told council members. “That is not the intent of what we are trying to do here.”
Patterson spoke with WFAE’s Nick de la Canal about how the new curfew will work, and how CMPD will measure its success.
What if police encounter teenagers out after curfew?
Patterson said officers will be able to approach and detain young people if they reasonably suspect they are underage and violating the curfew. But she said the department will focus on large groups of unaccompanied minors, not individuals.
“The way we ideally see this working is with teen takeover events, where we have all these teens converging on one area. We want to be able to get in front of that or be able to disrupt it in some way.
"So if we see young people congregating, hanging out, our officers would just go up to them, engage them in conversation, try to determine their ages. And if they are in violation of the curfew, we certainly can detain them.
"Our goal is to call their parents and to educate them about it. And then as a last resort, if they're engaging in criminal behavior, something like that, then we would violate them for the curfew violation.”
Why change the existing curfew?
Charlotte currently has a tiered youth curfew. Children 12 and under are generally subject to a 10 p.m. curfew, while teens ages 13 through 15 are subject to an 11 p.m. curfew. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds are not covered.
Patterson said officers have a hard time enforcing the curfew because many kids and teenagers don't have IDs.
“What we were finding is, if you stop someone that looks like they're 10 or 11 years old, they're going to tell you they're 16, they're going to tell you they're 15, because they want to stay out till 11 p.m."
Without ID, officers can't prove they're under the age limits. She said expanding the curfew to everyone under 18 and setting it for 10 p.m. will make the rules easier to enforce.
What about the people organizing teen takeovers online?
Some critics have argued the city should focus less on curfew enforcement and more on people who organize large youth gatherings through Snapchat and TikTok posts that go viral.
Patterson said identifying the original organizer can be difficult.
“Oftentimes, you don't know who's organizing this. It could just be on anybody's page, and it circulates very quickly ... The person may not advertise who they are or why they're having this teen takeover.
"So I think that it's better to look at this from a safety aspect. We want our young people to be safe, and when we can't control what's being advertised or the locations and that kind of thing, we can control — we hope — that parents will be responsible, and that they will know where their youth are and control their movement.”
Can teenagers still attend protests after 10 p.m.?
The curfew includes an exception for young people exercising First Amendment rights, including peaceful protest.
Patterson said officers would evaluate the circumstances when teens say they are participating in protected activity.
“If we have individuals or young people telling us that they are exercising — and there is proof of — that right ... we would weigh that. We would evaluate that. We don't want to restrict that in any way.”
What about concerns over racial disparities?
Some residents and council members have raised concerns that the curfew could lead to
disproportionate numbers of Black and Latino teenagers being stopped or questioned.
Patterson said CMPD will not make traffic stops based solely on suspicion that someone is violating the curfew.
“This is not about criminalizing. We do not want to create pipelines.
"You talk about, 'This may disproportionately affect brown and Black children' ... We see where Black and brown children are disproportionately victimized when it comes to violent crime in outdoor spaces. We want to reduce that. We want to prevent that from happening.
"Our officers are not going to profile, target, none of that. We're going to be looking at our young people and making sure that they're safe.”
How will CMPD decide whether the curfew worked?
The pilot is scheduled to run through the end of August 2027. CMPD is expected to report data to council members before officials decide whether to keep the stricter rules.
Patterson said she would consider reductions in teen takeovers and youth crime victimization signs of success.
“If we see zero teen takeovers, if we see crime victimization numbers go down and we can correlate it back to youth being out in public spaces and that kind of thing, I would say it's a success, and that we should continue the 10 p.m. curfew.”
