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Curfews cost communities money for additional police paperwork, court appearances, and overtime. The city of San Jose estimated that its curfew has cost the city one million dollars.

In her book, A Kids' Guide to America's Bill of Rights: Curfews, Censorship, and the 100-Pound Giant ,Kathleen Krull discusses the Bill of Rights and how it applies specifically to youth. With many municipatlities wishing that we had no Bill of Rights, it becomes all the more important to read the book. Note: clicking on the title will take you to Amazon.com, where you can read more reviews and excerpts.

Rochester imposed a temporary curfew to attempt to reduce youth crime. In the meantime, a study was to be conducted to see the results of the curfew. In December, 2006, the results came back in the form of a 40-page report. The report soundly concluded that there is no link between the curfew and a reduction in violence.

The temporary curfew was set to expire at the end of January, 2007. Presumably, the curfew could be extended if it was found to be effective. Now the mayor and city council have decided to ignore the report and extend the curfew anyway. It is now extended until September 4th.

Meanwhile, the Rochester government was sued by a boy and his father. State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Van Strydonck refused to overturn the curfew. However,the judge cited many studies from cities and stated that the view that curfews prevent cirme "is often in conflict with the reality of the effectiveness of these ordinances."

Voices are growing in opposition to the Rochester curfew. As one parent stated: "Quite frankly the curfew has done absolutely nothing accept, transfer the job of parenting from parents onto the Rochester police department."

The mayor and City councilors in Barre, Vermont commssioned a citizen's advisory committee to study the possible implementation of a curfew. The advisory board nearly unanimously recommended against imposing a curfew for citizen's under the age of 16. According to Stephen Finner, Head of the Public Safety panel, "There did not seem to be any strong justification or data for leaping to the establishment of an ordinance at this time."

This was apparently not the answer the council was looking for. City Councilors ignored the proposal and voted 5-1 in favor of the curfew. Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon, a staunch supporter of the curfew admitted that the primary reasons were simply cultural. "My intent was never to address youth crime." he said. He added, "I do not believe a young person under age of 16 should be on the street after 10 p.m. unsupervised."