A sharply divided City Council committee on Tuesday voted to give the Chicago Police Department a powerful tool to disperse “teen takeovers” just in time for Memorial Day weekend — which typically marks the start of the traditional summer surge of violent crime.
Public Safety Committee Chair Brian Hopkins (2nd) muscled through the ordinance he revised and championed, empowering Chicago’s police superintendent to declare three-hour-long “snap curfews” anywhere in the city to disperse groups of 20 or more after 30 minutes’ warning.
The final vote was 10-7, even after Mayor Brandon Johnson reiterated his opposition amid fear that the changes negotiated with the police department do not go far enough to prevent a costly court challenge.
The full City Council will consider the ordinance Wednesday.
Hopkins prevailed, even after one of his two powerful co-sponsors — Budget Committee Chair Jason Ervin (28th) — withdrew his support on grounds that revised language watering down a top mayoral aide’s power to veto snap curfews would give too much power to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling.
“This power given to the superintendent is beyond the reach,” Ervin said. “There needs to be some check against it. The language as drafted removes that check. I can’t live with not having civilian involvement.”
Hopkins’ other co-sponsor, Finance Committee Chair Pat Dowell (3rd) stood firm in her support, even though Johnson remains adamantly opposed.
Dowell said she’s satisfied that Snelling, in consultation with Garien Gatewood, Johnson’s deputy mayor for public safety, will decide “when this tool will be used.”
“That’s what the superintendent is supposed to do: run the police department,” Dowell said.
Noting that quarterly and annual reporting on the use of snap curfews were added at her behest, Dowell said, “Let’s move forward with this. If we don’t like it, we can always repeal it.”
Hopkins said he made the relatively minor change simply to clarify that Chicago’s “chief law enforcement officer, as opposed to a non-sworn civilian” has the final authority to declare snap curfews.
“The superintendent made it clear that his role ultimately is to be the final decision-maker,” Hopkins said. “The decision should have multiple voices. But ultimately, it’s his decision. It’s his job.”
Alderpersons Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) and Jessie Fuentes (26th), two of Johnson’s closest City Council allies, were among those voting against the measure.
Like Johnson, they argued that research shows that curfews don’t work and that the only thing that discourages young people summoned by social media from gathering in large groups — that sometimes turn unruly and violent — is to offer them constructive recreational and job opportunities in their own neighborhoods.
“We need to double down on prevention,” Fuentes said.
Sigcho-Lopez predicted “more lawsuits” for a city that has already run through the $82 million that Johnson set aside for settlements and judgments in 2025. On the agenda for Wednesday’s City Council meeting are $62.4 million in additional settlements.
“The resources that we spend on policing, on reactive measures, on draconian responses, are better spent by actually providing spaces” for young people to have fun, Sigcho-Lopez said. “We’re failing once again our youth and our city. This is not gonna solve anything. We know that. If anything, we’re gonna be back here and potentially with more misconduct cases, with more lawsuits, and that is something that, in my opinion, would be irresponsible.”
The final version gives Snelling and Gatewood the power to impose curfews with 30 minutes’ notice after “social media posts, written materials such as flyers or a history of mass gatherings promoted for a particular place by a particular promoter on a recurring basis.”
It also limits those curfews to three hours “unless there is probable cause” to warrant an extension.
If the full Council approves the ordinance, the police department’s Chief of Patrol Jon Hein has assured the Public Safety Committee that it will be enforced constitutionally, judiciously and only after assembled groups of young people ignore police orders to voluntarily disperse and after “children start attacking one another.”
Johnson used his weekly City Hall news conference to showcase three young people who are working with his administration to develop the job and recreational programs that young people want, or serve as violence interrupters to defuse conflicts before they turn violent.
The mayor said his primary concern is to “provide spaces for young people to have experiences they can enjoy. That is their right.”
“If we don’t give them real opportunities, we’ll find ourselves in a tailspin,” Johnson said, vowing to give “youth voices power, and to respond with resources.”