Starkville leaders hold first public hearing on city-wide curfew for minors

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Tuesday night, the city of Starkville held its first public hearing to discuss the mayor’s proposal to adopt a city-wide curfew for minors.

Mayor Lynn Spruill called for the hearing on putting the curfew in place as part of the ongoing effort to halt the rise in youth crime. From January to May, Starkville Police say they’ve charged 10 juveniles as adults with violent crimes.

The shooting in McKee Park and the Easter day murder near Hillard and Sherman Streets both involved teenagers and guns. The proposed curfew would require all minors to be inside between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight to 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

The mayor told WCBI Tuesday morning that while she is not sure what to expect from the hearing, most of the feedback she has gotten about the curfew has been positive so far.

“There are many tools in this particular toolbox that we want to use to help keep our juveniles out of trouble, both from being trouble to the community as a whole…and then those that might find themselves in trouble from others,” Spruill says. “Having youth out late at night is not safe for the youth either, so it’s saving them from themselves and others, so to speak.”

The Board of Alderman began hearing from the public Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Some of the questions Mayor Spruill says she has gotten about the curfew have involved how exactly it will be enforced by Starkville Police.

There will be at least one more hearing on the matter in early June.