The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - When Donald Van Slyke made it to the Las Vegas Strip after a grueling 1,500-mile trip, he was promptly busted for breaking a law he didn’t know existed.
The 17-year-old from Arkansas was cited for violating curfew.
Clark County ordinances forbid anyone younger than 18 from being on the Strip after 9 p.m. on weekends and holidays without a parent. Elsewhere in the county, minors cannot be out without parents after 10 p.m. on school nights, and midnight on the weekends.
“I was shocked, a little bit, and surprised,” said Vickie Arp, 42, a family friend and recent Las Vegas transplant with whom Van Slyke is staying this summer. “Especially with Donald being from out of town.”
As the school year wrapped up last week for most teens, Las Vegas police had issued more than 700 curfew citations, said Sgt. Chris Darcy, a department spokesman.
Last year, 2,800 citations were issued. The department does not keep separate statistics for Strip curfew violators and other curfew violators, Darcy said.
“The purpose behind the curfew is to keep large groups of kids under 18 that aren’t engaged in any positive activity away from the areas where it might affect tourism,” he said.
Some teens who frequent the Strip have been known to harass tourists and other people by yelling profanities, walking into traffic, and driving erratically, Darcy said.
“Curfew is just one of the things that an officer can use out there” to control crowds of teen-agers, he said. Aggressive traffic enforcement and curbing underage drinking also are goals of Strip area officers.
The curfew is aimed at protecting children from dangers they might encounter late at night.
Randall Shelden, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas criminal justice professor, said studies show, however, that curfews do little to stop juvenile crime.
“Most of the crimes kids commit are between the hours after school and 7 or 8 o’clock at night,” he said.
Darcy said that local teens, especially those with prior curfew violations, are more likely to get cited than tourists.
“Obviously, we have a little bit of leniency. We have discretion, we don’t have to cite everybody.”
And Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Bob Teuton, who oversees the prosecution of juveniles, said Van Slyke probably does not have much to worry about. Van Slyke is due in court on Friday, his 18th birthday.
Typically, Harsh sentences are unusual, Teuton said. First-time curfew offenders are given either a letter outlining the county’s policy, or a lecture by a probation officer on their court date.