Tulsa police say the new downtown curfew for youth is doing its job.
City council last week passed a curfew from 9 p.m.-6 a.m. Thursday to Saturday for anyone under the age of 18. The curfew was in response to a rash of shootings involving youth and young adults.
Police Captain Richard Meulenberg said officers issued one citation last week and educated youth about the curfew. Information about the citation was not readily available Wednesday morning. Meulenberg also reported an overall decline in the number of people downtown.
But Meulenberg also says success is by design hard to measure.
“We may never know what lives we’re protecting because they’re not there. It’s very much like wearing a seatbelt. You can wear your seatbelt driving a car every day, 365 days a year, and you don’t know how safe you’ve been until you’ve been in a wreck,” he said.
Council passed the curfew despite concerns that police would disproportionately interact with Black youth in downtown. Some councilors pointed out that Tulsa police in 2024 arrested Black youth at a rate two and a half times greater than white youth.
Meulenberg says it’s too early to tell if people have complaints with how the curfew has been enforced.
“Right now, what we’re seeing is mostly satisfaction from our politicians, councilors, and some from the downtown area. But we may need to have some time to see how it pans out,” he said.
The curfew is in effect until Oct. 22 to give councilors time to evaluate its effectiveness.
Meulenberg said “the real test” will be enforcing the curfew over Independence Day weekend. He said downtown will have enhanced police presence.
