SASKATOON – The woman who wrote to city officials because youth are “getting wild out there” won’t get her wish. Agatha Rose Eaglechief requested the city’s Board of Police Commissioners adopt a curfew after 10 p.m. CT for high school students.
“Somebody’s got to do something and say something because our children our suffering. I think it’s about time. Somebody has to listen out there,” Eaglechief said.
With a son in prison and other family members “running wild” in North Battleford, Eaglechief wants communities to crack down on gang activity.
Keeping young people off the streets is one way to do that, she said.
“It’s the children that are going to make our future and if they’re mixed up in gangs and drugs and alcohol, what kind of future does the next generation have to live?” said Viola Sparvier, Eaglechief’s aunt who also wants a curfew.
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Commissioner Darren Hill thanked the women for their presentation, but opposed a curfew. Instead, he recommended the city take a look at its social programming.
“Even local community associations might want to consider some evening programming if they can coordinate with their schools,” Hill said.
In November, La Ronge town council asked the RCMP to enforce an overnight curfew for people under 18 after multiple reports of theft and vandalism.
A 2011 study of curfew laws from the University of California Berkeley found curfews reduced the arrest rate for American youth by about 10 per cent in the five years after implementation.
The Saskatoon Police Service won’t be enforcing a curfew for Saskatoon unless asked to report on it, according to Deputy Chief Bernie Pannell.
“Curfews are extremely hard to enforce. I’m really not sure it is a police function,” Pannell said.
Eaglechief and Sparvier plan to take their proposal to the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.
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