Overview
- Minutes before the scheduled vote, a substitute ordinance was introduced after Ald. Brian Hopkins negotiated with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s advisers, prompting a postponement to the next meeting.
- The new measure creates a 'declaration of disruptive youth gathering' that lets the police superintendent order dispersal based on objective facts supporting probable cause, such as social media posts, flyers or a location’s history.
- The rewrite explicitly bans snap curfews and removes earlier time-based provisions, adding a requirement for a verbal warning at least 10 minutes before enforcement and for officers to ask a person’s age and reason for being there.
- Teens who ignore a lawful dispersal order would be taken into custody and released to a parent or guardian, with quarterly usage reports and an annual briefing to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.
- Several aldermen criticized the last-minute switch and questioned accountability and enforceability, while Hopkins and Johnson argued codifying existing practice would enable stronger and more consistent enforcement.