Mid-County Board Debates Curfew

The Montgomery County curfew has been the subject of hot debate these last few months and weeks, and that debate reached the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board .

The board ultimately voted not to take a position on the curfew, but several MCCAB members expressed their opposition and skepticism.

Montgomery County Councilmember Phil Andrews (D-Dist. 3) attended the meeting and tried to persuade the MCCAB that the proposed curfew directed at the county’s teenagers does not make sense.

“The problem I see with the proposal is that it’s divided the community,” he said.

He noted that most crime takes place during non-curfew hours, citing statistics from the county’s police department.

Andrews said he plans to introduce a loitering law sometime in the next two weeks, a law modeled after similar legislation in Florida. He said the loitering law would be a better tool because it would not narrowly apply to specific ages or times of the day.

Michael Subin, executive director of the county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission, attended the meeting with the opposite intent: to support the curfew and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett’s arguments in favor of it.

Subin faced intense questioning from several board members, and the general mood favored Andrews and his data.

MCCAB member Ariel Winters reported that the board’s Quality of Life committee discussed the curfew at its September meeting and recommended that the board not take a position on the curfew at this time. He then asked the board to approve a draft letter expressing these views.

Board member Robin Brannan said that the Quality of Life committee did not take a position because the members did not think they had enough information on alternatives to the curfew to present an argument against it.

“I’m disappointed that we don’t have a position on this,” board member Kieran McHargue said.

Board member Steve Morrison firmly opposed the curfew, warning against “draconian” measures.

“It opens up the door to an action that I think is contrary to the First Amendment of the Constitution,” he said, referring to the freedom to assemble.

“I heard a lot of skepticism [in this meeting] not reflected in this letter,” said Robert Shoenber, who represents Wheaton on the board. “This letter does not really say a whole heck of a lot.”

The board voted to amend the letter with a paragraph expressing skepticism and requesting a more thorough analysis of the data supporting the curfew — and also voted to then send the amendment letter without further review to Leggett and the county council.

“How can we vote on an undrafted amendment?” Morrison asked, but the board approved the measure 7-2.