City attorney weighs in on curfew proposal

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima Councilman Micah Cawley called midafternoon Thursday to say he’d asked city legal staff to look into the prospect of neighborhood curfews aimed at curtailing gang activicty in the city.

The idea is to designate certain parts of the city as gang areas and impose a curfew there to keep people of all ages of the streets at night. Cawley doesn’t have a specific proposal; first he’s trying to get an idea of the city’s legal ability to impose such curfews.

It was late in the work day when Cawley and I spoke Thursday, and I wasn’t able to connect with City Attorney Jeff Cutter to get his thoughts in time for the print edition. But Cutter returned my call on Friday, and he did have some insight into the issue.

First a caveat: He stressed that city legal staff is still in the early stages of its research, so this is all broad-strokes kind of talk.

Now, here’s what he had to say:
• The state Supreme Court has not, in its rulings, prohibited cities from setting curfews. But it generally requires that a city be able to defend itself with objective statistics showing need — not just a community perception that gangs operate in a certain area at a certain time.
• There may be additional leeway for temporary curfews in emergency situations. Cawley has said he believes a recent spate of gang shootings in Yakima ought to qualify as an emergency. Cutter said maybe it does and again noted that legal staff is still just getting started researching the matter.

- Pat Muir