City Rep. Questions Curfew In Segundo Barrio; Prohibits Youth From Being Out Past 7 P.M.

One city representative is concerned that the El Paso Police Department may be unnecessarily treating one neighborhood differently than others, after learning of a little-known law that forbids children and teens to hang out outside after 7 P.M. in some parts of the Segundo Barrio.

“As a parent personally, I would hate to live in a neighborhood where my kids couldn’t go out after 7. You have to give me a really good reason why we treat one neighborhood differently than we treat another neighborhood”, said City Rep. Susie Byrd.

The city council on Tuesday heard a presentation by Police Commander Zina Silva about the curfew ordinance, which was enacted in 1997. It prohibits juveniles between 10 and 16 years old to be out after 11 P.M., unless they’re with a legal guardian, out because of an emergency or working.

State law requires that the city review the ordinance every 3 years. That’s what city council did on Tuesday, when they learned of the ‘special curfew areas’. These are all in or around Segundo Barrio, near the international bridges. Here, children under 16 are not allowed to ‘hang out’ outside after 7 P.M.

“Throughout different years in the history of el paso, we’ve had crime that conglomerates a certain area and when we wrote that particular ordinance, it was in an effort to reduce crime in those particular neighborhoods,” said Silva, in an interview. There was a Barrio Azteca gang injunction there in the mid 90s.

“The police department didn’t feel like we were segregating anyone. it was more like they were addressing the needs of the particular neighborhoods and the needs of these neighborhoods was gang activity and this was directly targeted toward reducing that,” said City Rep. Cortney Niland, who represents the area.

“They (police department) did not specifically provide real data or real information about why you would continue to treat that one neighborhood different than you would everyone elses neighborhood”, said Byrd.

Niland said the special areas are not really conducive to children. “There’s not even parks nearby, so I just feel like this is an effort by our police to make us the safest city in the nation, and here we are, if it’s not broke, we don’t need to fix it.”

The city council unanimously approved to continue the curfew ordinance, but also ordered that the special curfew areas be further studied in a Legislative Review Committee. The group will review if they’re still necessary and how residents in the area feel about them.

Police say crime has significantly decreased there. The central regional command which oversees those special curfew areas issued fewer curfew tickets last year- than any part of the city.

The Eastside is where Police issue the most curfew citations. In 2010, they issued nearly 400 curfew tickets there, compared to about 250 in central.