Scroll to History Page
Scroll to Previous Versions Links List
Scroll to Full Text
Download This Bill in Microsoft Word format
Current Status Bill Number:View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.168 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:Senate Introduced Date:20010118 Primary Sponsor:Ford All Sponsors:Ford Drafted Document Number:l:\s-jud\bills\ford\jud0001.rf.doc Residing Body:Senate Current Committee:Judiciary Committee 11 SJ Subject:Curfew, Statewide; require for minors seventeen and under during certain hours; Crimes, Juvenile Justice Department History Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved ______ ________ ______________________________________ _______ ____________ Senate 20010118 Introduced, read first time, 11 SJ referred to Committee Versions of This Bill
TO AMEND CHAPTER 17, TITLE 16, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING ARTICLE 9, SO AS TO ENACT A STATEWIDE CURFEW, TO PROVIDE A CIVIL PENALTY FOR A VIOLATION OF THE CURFEW, AND TO PROVIDE A PROCEDURE WHEREBY MUNICIPALITIES AND COUNTIES MAY "OPT OUT" OF THE CURFEW.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. The purpose of this article is to: (a) promote the general welfare and protect the general public through the reduction of juvenile violence and crime throughout the State; (b) promote the safety and well-being of the State's youngest citizens, persons seventeen years of age and under, whose inexperience renders them particularly vulnerable to becoming participants in unlawful activities, particularly unlawful drug activities, and to being victimized by older perpetrators of crime; and (c) foster and strengthen parental responsibility for children.
SECTION 2. Chapter 17, Title 16 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 16-17-491. As used in this article:
(1) 'Curfew hours' means the hours of 12:01 a.m. through 5:00 a.m. on Monday through Friday, and 1:00 a.m. through 5:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
(2) 'Court' means the family court, unless otherwise specified.
(3) 'Emergency' means unforeseen circumstances, or the status or condition resulting therefrom, requiring immediate action to safeguard life, limb, or property. The term includes, but is not limited to, fires, natural disasters, automobile accidents, or other similar circumstances.
(4) 'Establishment' means any privately-owned place of business within the State operated for a profit, to which the public is invited, including, but not limited to, any place of amusement or entertainment. With respect to an establishment, the term 'operator' means any person, and any firm, association, partnership (and the members or partners thereof) or any corporation (and the officers thereof) conducting or managing that establishment.
(5) 'Minor' means any person seventeen years of age or younger who has not been emancipated by order of the family court.
(6) 'Parent' means: (a) a person who is a minor's biological or adoptive parent and who has legal custody of a minor (including either parent, if custody is shared under a court order or agreement); (b) a person who is the biological or adoptive parent with whom a minor regularly resides; (c) a person judicially appointed as a legal guardian of the minor; or (d) a person eighteen years of age or older standing in loco parentis, as indicated by the written authorization of a person listed in (a), (b), or (c) of this definition, for the person to assume the care or physical custody of the child.
(7) 'Person' means an individual, and not any association, corporation, or any other legal entity. 'Person' does not include a minor.
(8) 'Public place' means any place to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access, including, but not limited to, streets, highways, roads, sidewalks, alleys, avenues, parks, or the common areas of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transportation facilities, and shops.
(9) 'Remain' means to linger or stay at or upon a place or to fail to leave a place when requested to do so by a law enforcement officer or by the owner, operator, or other person in control of the place.
Section 16-17-492. (A) It is unlawful for a minor, during curfew hours, to remain in or upon any public place within the State, to remain in any motor vehicle operating or parked therein or thereon, or to remain in or upon the premises of any establishment within the State unless:
(1) the minor is accompanied by a parent;
(2) the minor is involved in an emergency;
(3) the minor is engaged in an employment activity, or is going to or returning home from such activity without detour or stop;
(4) the minor is on the sidewalk or walkway directly abutting a place where he or she resides with a parent;
(5) the minor is attending an activity sponsored by a school, religious, or civic organization, by a public organization or agency, or by another similar organization or entity, which activity is supervised by adults, or the minor is going to or returning from such an activity without detour or stop;
(6) the minor is on an errand at the direction of a parent, and the minor has in his or her possession written permission signed by the parent containing the following information: the name, signature, address, and telephone number of the parent authorizing the errand, the telephone number where the parent may be reached during the errand, the name of the minor, and a brief description of the errand, the minor's destinations and the hours the minor is authorized to be engaged in the errand;
(7) the minor is involved in interstate travel through, or beginning or terminating in, the State of South Carolina; or
(8) the minor is exercising First Amendment rights protected by the United States Constitution, such as the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and the right of assembly.
(B) It is unlawful for a minor's parent or parents to knowingly permit, allow, or encourage the minor to violate this article.
(C) It is unlawful for any person who is the owner or operator of any motor vehicle to knowingly permit, allow, or encourage a violation of this article.
(D) It is unlawful for the operator of any establishment, or for any person who is an employee thereof, to knowingly permit, allow, or encourage a minor to remain upon the premises of the establishment during curfew hours. It is a defense to liability under this subsection that the operator or employee of an establishment promptly notified law enforcement that a minor was present at the establishment after curfew hours and refused to leave.
(E) It is unlawful for any person or minor to give a false name, address, or telephone number to any officer investigating a possible violation of this article.
(F) Before taking any enforcement action under this article, a law enforcement officer must make an immediate investigation for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not the presence of a minor in a public place, motor vehicle, or establishment during curfew hours is in violation of this article. If this investigation reveals that the presence of the minor is in violation of this article:
(1) if the minor has not previously been issued a warning for any such violation, the officer must issue a verbal warning to the minor, which must be followed by a written warning mailed by the law enforcement agency to the minor and his or her parent(s); or
(2) if the minor has previously been issued a warning for a violation of this article, the officer must charge the minor with a violation of this article and must issue a summons requiring the minor to appear in family or magistrates court.
(G) As soon as practicable, the officer must: (1) release the minor to his or her parent(s); (2) detain the minor for a period not to exceed the remainder of the curfew hours so that his or her parent may retrieve the minor; or (3) if a minor refuses to give an officer his or her name and address, refuses to give the name and address of his or her parents, or if no parent can be located prior to the end of the applicable curfew hours, or if located, no parent appears to accept custody of the minor, the minor may be detained pursuant to item (2).
(H) If an investigation by an officer reveals that a person, including a parent or operator of an establishment, has violated subsection (C), (D), or (E), and if the person has not previously been issued a warning with respect to any such violation, an officer must issue a verbal warning to the person, which must be followed by a written warning mailed by the law enforcement agency to the person; however, if any such warning has previously been issued to that person, the officer must charge the person with a violation and must issue a summons directing the person to appear in general sessions court.
(I) A violation of this article is not a criminal offense, but is a violation for which a civil penalty may be imposed by the appropriate court. The penalty must not exceed one thousand dollars for each violation and shall be deposited into the state's general fund.
(J)(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 16-17-492, the governing body of a county by ordinance may suspend the application of the curfew provisions provided for in that section for the unincorporated area of the county; and
(2) the governing body of a municipality by ordinance may suspend the application of the curfew provisions provided for in Section 16-17-492 for the municipality."
SECTION 3. The county election commission or the municipal election commission, as appropriate, shall place the question contained in this subsection on the ballot in November 2002 in a county in which the county governing body or the municipal governing body, as appropriate, has suspended application of the curfew law provided for in Section 16-17-492 by ordinance within ninety days before the 2002 general election. The state election laws apply to the referendum, mutatis mutandis. The State Board of Canvassers shall publish the results of the referendum and certify them to the Secretary of State. If the result of a referendum is in favor of reinstating the curfew within the county or municipality, Section 16-17-492 applies in that county or municipality after the result of the referendum is certified to the Secretary of State.
The question put before the voters shall read:
"Shall the statewide curfew, however described, be reinstated in __________municipality/county?
Those voting in favor of the question shall deposit a ballot with a check or cross mark in the square after the word 'Yes', and those voting against the question shall deposit a ballot with a check or cross mark in the square after the word 'No'."
SECTION 4. If any provision of this act or the application of these provisions to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this act which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end, the provisions of this act are severable.
SECTION 5. This act takes effect January 1, 2003, at 12:01 a.m.
This web page was last updated on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 11:10 A.M.