Philadelphia imposes 10 p.m. summer curfew for kids under 18

PHILADELPHIA - It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your children are? Starting Thursday night in Philadelphia, you'll have to.

In an effort to keep the city's youth safe from gun violence and other crimes, the city has imposed a 10 p.m. summer curfew for kids under 18-years-old. 

The summer curfew starts a half an hour earlier for kids under 14-years-old, and will remain in effect until September 29th. 

Philadelphia City Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson spearheaded the effort and said it's only a modification to a curfew the city has had in place since 1977. 

MORE LOCAL HEADLINES

• Officials: 11-year-old boy extremely critical after he was struck by hit-and-run driver
• Suspect sought in violent sexual assault of woman in Center City office building
• Camden police believe new gun laws will help stem violent crimes

The tweaks include tighter curfew times and removal of penalties and fines. Mayor Jim Kenney signed off on the modified curfew earlier this week. 

"The very first step is to seek to reunify the young person with family, and if that does not take place, if they are close to a community resource center, they will take them to the center, and if not they take them to the police division until they can be reunited with their family," Richardson said. 

The city has two curfew centers in South and Southwest Philadelphia that are open from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. The centers provide daily programming, community connections, service linkages, and parenting support. 

City leaders hope the curfew will help stem the number of children impacted by gun violence and other crimes, which Richardson called "a state of emergency." 

"They need to be in a house by a certain time, we are only seeing to keep young people safe," Richardson said.