The Little Rock City Board of Directors voted to narrow a curfew for minors in certain parts of the city on Tuesday.
Under the new ordinance, unaccompanied minors found after 9 p.m. in designated entertainment districts, which include the River Market and SoMa neighborhoods, could be subject to a citation. The ordinance will also apply to some public parks.
City directors had rescheduled the meeting for Tuesday to allow for public comment, but no residents showed up to speak on the ordinance. At-large City Director Joan Adcock said she had received public comment in the form of emails.
Ward 2 Director Ken Richardson said he had not seen enough evidence or research to support the curfew.
“We have not had any data presented to us,” he said. “The only information that we have had was an expedited attempt to push this through.”
At-large Director Antwan Phillips said the 9 p.m. curfew is too early and that he did not want Little Rock to be thought of as “un-fun.”
“That’s too early,” he said. “And the way we live life, I regularly don’t eat dinner until 9:30.”
At-large Director Dr. Dean Kumpuris voted for the curfew for safety reasons. He said he is willing to revisit the ordinance in the future, but felt it was a good prevention measure.
“100 to150 kids downtown with nothing to do not being able to go into any of the establishments that are there [is] a potential hand grenade that somebody is going to pull the pin one day and it’s going to go off.”
The ordinance goes into effect immediately.
