HOUSE BILL 254
50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011
INTRODUCED BY
Dennis J. Kintigh
AN ACT
RELATING TO CHILDREN; PROVIDING COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES WITH AUTHORITY TO ENACT CURFEW ORDINANCES; PROVIDING PENALTIES; AMENDING AND ENACTING SECTIONS OF THE CHILDREN'S CODE.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. A new section of the Children's Code is enacted to read:
"[NEW MATERIAL] LOCAL GOVERNMENTS--AUTHORITY TO ADOPT CURFEW ORDINANCES--TIME LIMITATIONS FOR CURFEWS--EXCEPTIONS TO CURFEWS--PROCEDURES--SANCTIONS.--
A. The governing body of a county or municipality may adopt a curfew ordinance to regulate the actions of children during nighttime hours. If adopted, an ordinance shall set reasonable, age-appropriate time limitations.
B. The governing body of a county or municipality may adopt a curfew ordinance to regulate the actions of children during daytime hours on school days. If adopted, the curfew may require children, subject to the provisions of the Compulsory School Attendance Law, to be present on school premises.
C. A curfew ordinance adopted by the local governing body of a county or municipality shall provide lawful exceptions to the ordinance. The ordinance shall apply except when a child is:
(1) accompanied by a parent or legal guardian;
(2) accompanied by an adult who is authorized by the child's parent or legal guardian to have custody of the child;
(3) traveling interstate;
(4) going to or returning home from a school-sponsored function, a civic organization-sponsored function or a religious function;
(5) going to work or returning home from work;
(6) involved in a bona fide emergency;
(7) on a public street or sidewalk in front of the child's own home or the home of a consenting adult neighbor; and
(8) exercising the child's right to freedom of speech pursuant to the provisions of Article 2, Section 17 of the constitution of New Mexico or the first amendment to the constitution of the United States.
D. A curfew ordinance adopted by the local governing body of a county or municipality shall comply with the following procedures. If a child is detained by a law enforcement officer or any other employee designated by a county or municipality to enforce a curfew ordinance, the law enforcement officer or employee shall promptly attempt to contact the child's parent or legal guardian. Upon contacting the child's parent or legal guardian, the law enforcement officer or employee shall deliver the child to the parent's or legal guardian's residence or request that the child's parent or legal guardian come and take custody of the child, unless returning the child to the custody of the child's parent or legal guardian would endanger the health or safety of the child. If the law enforcement officer or employee is unable to contact the child's parent or legal guardian within a two-hour time period, the child shall be transported to a protective custody facility that is separate from a juvenile detention facility, an adult detention facility or an adult jail. A child detained in a protective custody facility shall be taken the following day to the residence of the child's parent or legal guardian or to the child's school if school is in session.
E. Subject to the provisions of Subsection F of this section, the municipal court, magistrate court or metropolitan court shall have original, exclusive jurisdiction over curfew violations. If a child willfully and intentionally violates a curfew ordinance, the municipal court, magistrate court or metropolitan court may order:
(1) the child to perform forty hours of community service for each violation of the ordinance; and
(2) the parent or legal guardian of the child to pay a civil fine in an amount not to exceed three hundred dollars ($300), plus the actual costs incurred by the county or municipality in providing shelter for the child in a protective custody facility.
F. If a child is adjudicated three times within a six-month period for violating a curfew ordinance, the municipal court, magistrate court or metropolitan court shall report the matter to the department. The department shall conduct an investigation to determine the necessity of filing a petition with the children's court alleging neglect or abuse or that the child's family needs family services."
SECTION 2. Section 32A-3B-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1993, Chapter 77, Section 75) is amended to read:
"32A-3B-3. PROTECTIVE CUSTODY--INTERFERENCE WITH PROTECTIVE CUSTODY--PENALTY.--
A. A child may be taken into protective custody by a law enforcement officer without a court order when the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that:
(1) the child has run away from the child's parent, guardian or custodian;
(2) the child without parental supervision is suffering from illness or injury;
(3) the child has been abandoned; [or]
(4) the child is endangered by [his] the child's surroundings and removal from those surroundings is necessary to ensure the child's safety; or
(5) the child is in violation of a curfew ordinance and the officer is unable to contact the child's parent or guardian.
B. A child may be taken into protective custody pursuant to a court order issued after an agency legally charged with the supervision of the child has notified a law enforcement agency that the child has run away from a placement.
C. When a child is taken into protective custody, the department shall make a reasonable effort to determine whether the child is an Indian child.
D. Any person [other than the child taken into protective custody] who interferes with placing the child in protective custody is guilty of a [petty] misdemeanor and shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978."
SECTION 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2011.
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