LANCASTER : Parents Could Face $700 Fine Under Curfew Law

Hoping to curb youthful vandalism and other crimes, the Lancaster City Council has approved an ordinance that fines some parents $700 or more when their children are caught breaking the city curfew of 10 p.m.

Under the new law, parents of repeat offenders would be billed for the cost--about $200, possibly more--for sheriff’s deputies to detain, process and then transport their teen-agers home. That fee would be added to an already-established $500 court fine for violating curfew.

The curfew forbids anyone under 18 to loiter in public places between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Working a late job and driving home from a movie theater, for example, are not considered in violation of the curfew, but teen-agers caught loitering outside fast-food restaurants or in local parks are subject to citation.

Lancaster officials hope the ordinance will avert crimes like the after-curfew shooting of a 16-year-old boy at a Taco Bell restaurant in 1991. The restaurant’s parking lot had become a late-night gathering place for young people.