By Keegan Kyle
What’s a Curfew Sweep?
One of San Diego’s most heralded crime fighting programs is often called a collaborative curfew sweep. Once or twice a month, police swarm inner-city neighborhoods and arrest minors out past 10 p.m.
The kids are brought to a detention facility and connected with their parents and social services. Dozens of law enforcement, school and public officials join in the process, and community volunteers often outnumber police officers.
Why Evaluate Curfew Sweeps?
Through the program in the city’s urban core, police have more than tripled curfew arrests in the last five years and forced hundreds of kids to participate in weeks-long diversion programs, pay fines or fight tickets in court.
When pushed to justify the value of these additional arrests, police and elected leaders have repeatedly claimed the program reduces violent crime involving minors. By removing kids from the streets, police argue, kids are less likely to become victims or perpetrators of crime.
Still, police have never conducted a full analysis of the program’s impact on crime. They’ve only cited citywide crime statistics or anecdotal stories about the impact on select children or families to back up the program’s overall merits.
Click here to find out how voiceofsandiego.org analyzed the statistics and what they found.