Pensacola mayor hopes to bring youth curfew to vote in August

Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves wants to bring a youth curfew ordinance to the City Council as soon as August.

Earlier this month, Reeves said he was having the city legal team draft a new ordinance that would apply a curfew for people 17 and younger after a shooting in downtown Pensacola that occurred at 1:20 a.m. on July 5 that resulted in the death of Phillip Sheppard, 19, and the injury of six others ages 16-26.

The shooting occurred amidst a large crowd who were out on Palafox Street to celebrate the 4th of July. More than 50 police were downtown that night responding to people throwing fireworks, fights and other disturbances.

While two of the alleged three shooters were adults, PPD announced on July 22 the arrest of who they allege is the final shooter,  17-year-old Marley Foster, who has been charged with possession of a weapon by a Florida delinquent and firing a weapon in public. Additionally, one 16-year-old is being charged as an adult with carrying a firearm used in the shooting. Police responded to several other incidents that night, including 20 fights, and many of those involved minors. Pensacola Police Chief Eric Winstrom said that some unaccompanied minors in the crowds that night were as young as 10 or 11.

During his press conference on July 22, Reeves said there is a working draft, but there are still issues the city is working through. Reeves added he's had several members of the City Council contact him to discuss the ordinance, and he wants to get their feedback before putting forward a final draft.

Pensacola curfew details

As it stands, the ordinance will follow state law on minor curfews that would prohibit minors from being unaccompanied in public after 11 p.m. during weekdays and after midnight on weekends. Reeves said there would be exceptions so that it would not apply to a minor driving a vehicle or commuting to work.

The ordinance would provide for a first offense with a warning, with a notification to parents or legal guardians.

Second offenses would have a civil citation with a small fine and a larger fine for three or more offenses, though Reeves didn't specify what the fine would be.

"The goal here is not to catch somebody walking out of the movie theater at 11:01 p.m," Reeves said. "This is the ability that if we start to see that minors unaccompanied by adults are out in the city causing an issue that is impacting public safety, that gives the avenue for our first responders and our police department to be able to address it."

The current draft of the ordinance applies citywide, but Reeves said one of the issues he wanted to find out the answer to before he meets with individual members of the City Council was whether the city had the ability to apply it to only certain areas.

"If that is the case, then that, to me, is the number one question that I'm going to have for the inquiring council members is to say, what are your feelings on that?" Reeves said. "You're the ones representing these neighborhoods and these areas of the city. Is it something you feel like is needed there, or do you feel like it's not?"

Reeves said depending on how those meetings go, he is hoping the final draft will be ready to be placed on the City Council agenda in time for its only regular meeting in August. If not, the ordinance won't go before the City Council until September.

Reeves said the ordinance will also include similar consequences for parents of minors who violate the curfew.

"Downtown is not your babysitter," Reeves said. "Our city is not your babysitter, and so there is some parent accountability when minors are unaccompanied. ... There'd be warnings and things like that. We're not trying to be unreasonable by any means, but I think the current standard without one is unreasonable."

This story has been updated to correct an error misstating who would be subject to the curfew.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola mayor hopes to bring youth curfew to vote in August