DEWEY BEACH, Del. -- The Dewey Beach town council has voted to raise the current $100 town juvenile curfew violation penalty to $300 with hopes of improving enforcement among parents.
Town officials say they've received complaints from several business owners and neighbors about groups of teenagers loitering after hours. During Friday afternoon's meeting, they approved the curfew fine increase.
"There's so many that they have to bring in other municipalities as far as their police department in order to control the crowd, so they can get the teenagers out before curfew," says DB Convenience store partner Wayne Spencer.
The nightly curfew prohibits kids 17-years old and younger from being out after 11pm Sunday through Thursday, and after midnight Friday and Saturday.
During Friday's meeting, a revision was also proposed to shift the curfew to 11 p.m. 7 days a week.
"We just have a lot of underage people on the street, and this really isn't the spot for that," says councilman Paul Bauer. "Especially late night and the parents need to be accountable for it. If your kids are out past midnight on Friday or Saturday, they probably need to get home. A hundred dollars really wasn't a deterrent. So we're looking at raising that, not to make money, but if you're gonna do it, we have to make it a little more painful than it is today."
Spencer agrees that the fine increase will encourage parents to do a better job of enforcing the rules.
"Unfortunately, the way to hit people to make them understand is to hit their pockets," says Spencer. "If you take their money, unfortunately, I think the parents will start enforcing it more."
However, neighbor Peyton Weaver disagrees.
"It is more of a party beach town, it's not a huge family beach town like Rehoboth or Bethany, so there is going to be more partying and drinking going on, kids just roaming the streets with each other," says Weaver. "I don't think it should be raised to 300, that's just too much."
Bauer says the town is in the process of posting signs around the area that outline the details of the curfew. He says police are currently responsible for warning people that are unaware of the curfew that it exists.