Establishing a curfew for Palo Alto teens is not necessary, police chief Lynne Johnson stated last month at a press conference at Palo Alto High School.

“I think that curfews and how and where people go out is really a parental issue,” Johnson told two dozen Paly journalism students on April 28. “As a city, unless there is an unusual circumstance, I certainly don’t see there is a need for a curfew.”

Although Johnson supported the idea of an under 18 curfew in the past, she believes the situation today does not call for one.

“If someone asked me today if we needed a curfew in Palo Alto I would say no,” Johnson said.

One of the factors that effect Johnson’s views on a curfew is her understanding of how stressed teenagers are today.
“We expect as a community a lot of things from our young people,” Johnson said.

This combined with the fact that there has been no threat of gang activity leads her to believe Palo Alto does not have need of a curfew at this point.

A curfew implemented in 1994 lasted for a short period of time, during which there were some serious teenage issues including gang-related activity and noise which disrupted Palo Alto residents in the middle of the night.

Johnson described a serious incident, which involved shooting and even a child being beaten with a baseball bat, that brought up the idea of a city-imposed under-18 curfew.

A year after being passed, the counsel decided to revoke the curfew, an act that Johnson later supported.

“In retrospect, I believe we are much better off because the counsel did not pass it,” Johnson said.

Instead of the curfew, the counsel came up with many positive ideas to help teenagers, one of which was the Positive Alternatives for Youth Program that assists teenagers in many different areas.