Communities across the United States are tightening rules for teenagers ahead of Halloween weekend, imposing curfews and expanding police presence in an effort to prevent the disorder associated with so-called teen takeovers.
Officials in locations stretching from the Jersey Shore to suburban Atlanta have announced curfews targeting minors along with additional patrols. Many of the measures are in places still recovering from earlier takeovers that drew hundreds of teenagers and ended in fights and arrests.
In Oak Park, Illinois, Chief of Police Shatonya Johnson wrote that her department is working to keep a repeat of last year's Halloween teen takeover from happening. According to a department memo, an estimated 500 teens flooded downtown Oak Park last Halloween, where fights and gunshots broke out and police summoned assistance from six neighboring agencies.
Johnson said the agency will increase the number of officers on shift during Halloween and roll out several additional measures aimed at heading off another takeover.
In Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, adults are taking a different approach by organizing their own street presence. A group called CollaBOOration plans to turn out in force to discourage large gatherings by teenagers. The group formed after a string of large Halloween gatherings between 2016 and 2019 in which teen takeovers turned violent, according to Block Club Chicago.
"What we're really trying to do is establish a critical mass on the street, possibly before the Halloween festivities even start," said the group's founder, Bennie Currie. "So when these large gatherings happen, like we've seen every year, we will already have taken over 53rd Street .. we'll be walking up and down in orange shirts and keeping in contact with one another."
In Covington, Georgia, outside Atlanta, anyone under 16 must head home or be accompanied by an adult in the city's downtown area after 7 p.m. on Halloween, according to CBS News.
On the Jersey Shore, the Long Branch, New Jersey, police department intends to strictly enforce a Halloween curfew for those under 17 on Oct. 30 and 31, running from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., according to News 12. That curfew followed a May teen takeover in which hundreds gathered, fights erupted and six people were arrested.
Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith, a spokeswoman for the National Police Association, called it a "great idea" for cities and police departments to act proactively on Halloween, noting that teen takeovers show no signs of slowing.
"On Halloween night, I can tell you from experience, our call volume goes up, you know, four or five, six times because people are calling because they're because of fireworks. They're calling because there's a fight in a schoolyard. They're calling because they can't find their kid," Smith said. "There's so many different things that people are calling the police for, and then you factor in this desire to have these large crowds of teenagers take over and, again, get it on social media."
