Rome Commission tables curfew ordinance amendment

September 13, 2021–8:37 p.m.

STAFF REPORTS

By a 5-3 vote, the Rome City Commission voted to table a proposed change in the curfew ordinance Monday night.

There have been a number of issues in Downtown Rome involving unsupervised juveniles.

The latest was on August 14 in which several fights broke out.

The recommendation from the public safety committee, which had the backing of Rome Police Denise Downer-McKinney, would have lowered the curfew for anyone 17 and under from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Some on the commission expressed concerns about the curfew applying to the entire city instead of just downtown while others wanted to get more input from a task force that is being formed.

Commissioner Jim Bojo made the motion to table the ordinance amendment.

“We have to get the parents involved, we have to get the task force involved, and we have to get a lot of things involved,” he said.  “I don’t think changing the curfew from 11 to 10 p.m. is going to solve our problem.  I don’t believe that for one second.  I do believe there needs to be a curfew.”

Commissioner Bonny Askew said he will be working to schedule the first meeting of the task force to begin looking at some possible solutions.

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